Vajpayee assured the nation that all members of the Indian embassy in Belgrade were safe.

Reports from Belgrade said the residence of Indian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, S K Mathur, "sustained some collateral damage" following a NATO air attack on a nearby fuel depot.

The Indian embassy, however, continued to function normally despite the action, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement in New Delhi.

Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh has written to the Indian envoy to compliment the embassy staff on the way they had admirably shouldered their responsibilities despite the serious physical and psychological pressure the nato bombing had placed themin.

The Government informed that it had deputed an official to visit Belgrade from May 17 to May 19 to make an on-the-spot assessment of the welfare of its mission staff. The officer, Bhaskar Balakrishnan, joint secretary in the ministry, met Mathur and other members of the Indian mission and their families to convey regards of the Indian government to boost their morale.

Reports from Belgrade quoting the Ambassador's wife, Sarog Mathur, say that two glass doors were broken and a painting crashed from a wall when NATO missiles hit the fuel depot of the Jugopetrol company.

The Mathue residence is situated in Andre Nikolica street, close to the Swiss ambassador's residence which was also damaged in the attack.

Recounting the incident, Sarog Mathur said: ``At 8:20 pm we were having dinner in the basement when we heard an explosion and the windows (started) shaking. A few seconds later a stronger detonation was heard and glass in the door fell down.''

``Luckily, we were in the basement so nobody washurt,'' she said. She added that another ``huge explosion'' was heard again around 1:00 pm and that her family spent the night in the basement.

At that time, NATO missiles hit targets in the Lipovica forest, some 10 km southwest of the Yugoslav capital, Serbian sources said.