Between 200 and 300 mourners gathered for the ceremony in the village of Gracko.

The funerals took place in the open air to the chanting of Orthodox priests as incense and the wails of grieving women filled the air.

Several women fainted in the intense noon heat.

Arrests

A Nato military spokesman in Pristina would not reveal the ethnicity of the four people arrested in connection with the killings.

The spokesman said that four homes were raided in the Gracko area by the British Royal Military Police.

The BBC's Orla Guerin reports from Gracko: "The village was overwhelmed by grief"

If any charges are brought, a trial would take place in one of the new ethnically-balanced courts set up by the international community in Kosovo.

The farmers were shot dead as they returned from harvesting hay on Friday. It was the worst single incident of violence since K-For entered Kosovo last month.

The killings have rocked the community

Afterwards, it emerged the victims had asked Nato for protection, fearing revenge attacks from Kosovo Albanians, but extra security promised was not put in place until the following day.

The farmers' bodies were buried in the local cemetery, which Serbs from other Kosovo villages helped to prepare on Tuesday.

A contingent of 100 British troops was present in Gracko to keep a close eye on the ceremony and a team of engineers combed the village for explosives.

'A protest for the living'

UN administrator Bernard Kouchner and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriach Pavle, were present at the ceremony.

Fourteen oak coffins were laid out on the village playing fields, each one covered in flowers, an photograph of the victim and, as is traditional in Serbian funerals, a new shirt pinned to a cross.

After the ceremony, the coffins were taken on a tractor trailer to be buried at the local cemetary.

"It's a demonstration of sorrow for the dead and a protest for the living,'' said Father Milorad of Pristina.

Patriach Pavle and Bernard Kouchner at the funeral

He said Serbs were not satisfied with the protection from K-For, the Nato-led peacekeeping forces.

There have been numerous killings and hundreds of house burnings since the peacekeepers entered the province and Yugoslav forces moved out.

Most of the incidents have been revenge attacks carried out by Kosovo Albanians against the Serb minority.

Tens of thousands of Serbs have fled the province in fear of their safety.

Serbs shot dead in car

On Tuesday, two Serbs were found dead in a car near Vuciturn in northern Kosovo, the independent, Belgrade-based Beta news agency reported.

French soldiers found the two victims lying in a car riddled with bullets.

The state-run Yugoslav news agency, Tanjug, says about 45 Serbs have been killed and 18 wounded in sectarian attacks in recent weeks.

The agency also says there have been more than 600 cases of "attempted murder".

But other sources suggest between 60 and 80 ethnic Serbs have been killed in Pristina alone.

On Sunday, the Yugoslav mission at the UN called for an urgent meeting of the Security Council to discuss the violence against Serbs in Kosovo.

The letter from the Yugoslav ambassador also insisted that Yugoslav troops be allowed to re-enter the province to protect Serbs, Tanjug reported.