Serb Missile Upgrade Reported

Russia has supplied Serbs with advanced missile equipment that could add to the threat against NATO planes if airstrikes are launched on Serbia, the Times of London reported Wednesday.

Quoting unidentified senior defense officials in London, the Times said the Serbs have acquired new air defense systems that “had to be taken very seriously.”

Russian officials denied the story, which followed other reports that Russia had broken a U.N. arms embargo against Yugoslavia and supplied it with the missile systems.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has threatened airstrikes unless Serbia, the larger of the Yugoslav republics, halts its offensive against separatist rebels in the southern province of Kosovo, where 90% of the population is ethnic Albanian.

The Serbs have been supplied with new warheads, fuses and sensors for their mobile Sam 6 missiles, making their old Russian surface-to-air missiles faster and giving them an extended range, the Times said.