December 21, 2006 8:39 AM

BELGRADE, Serbia-Construction began Thursday to rebuild the landmark television tower destroyed by NATO bombs in 1999.

NATO destroyed the 200-meter-tall (660-foot) telecommunications tower atop Mount Avala on the outskirts of the Serbian capital to silence Serbian state-run television, part of the campaign to stop the Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.

Plans to rebuild the tower, a favorite Belgrade landmark, began in 2000, but clearing some 4,000 tons of rubble from the site started only last year.

The new tower will be a replica of the 1965 original and will be rebuilt at an estimated cost of 808 million dinars (€10.2 million, US$13.47 million).