Pristina  - Three German intelligence agents accused of throwing an explosive device at a European Union office in Kosovo left the territory on Saturday, witnesses said.

The trio took off in a small plane from the military airport in the capital, Pristina, after spending the night in the German embassy, following their release on Friday evening.

The three men, members of the BND foreign intelligence service, were kept in detention for 10 days despite their protestations of innocence.

Germany, the second biggest donor to the new ethnic Albanian republic after the United States, was angered by the arrest, which it said was "a breach of the rule of law."

Kosovo police had alleged the men threw an explosive at the office of the EU Special Representative on November 14, but Berlin sources said the trio had gone to the scene to investigate the blast.

A previously unknown Kosovo organization, the Army of the Republic of Kosovo, claimed responsibility this week.

Aged 41 to 47, the three agents were in Kosovo posing as advisers to Western businesses seeking investment opportunities there.

On Thursday, a panel of Kosovo judges had declined to release the three, and asked an international judge to join in a review of the case. The closed-door hearing lasted nearly 10 hours Friday.

A statement issued by the panel of judges after the review said the "detainees' complaints had been accepted, and their detention should be stopped immediately."

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February, and a new EU policing operation, Eulex, is due to become active shortly in the country.

Many Kosovo Albanians oppose the EU mission, viewing it as a deal brokered by Serbia that would lead to the partition of Kosovo through separate policing zones in ethnically Albanian and Serb areas. (dpa)