Yugoslavia remained defiant last night in the face of imminent air attacks by NATO, with Mr Milan Milutinovic, the President of Serbia, the larger of Yugoslavia's republics, declaring: "We are not accepting foreign military troops on our territory under any excuse and at any price, even the price of bombing."
However, Mr Richard Holbrooke, the US mediator whose last-ditch efforts to get President Slobodan Milosevic to agree a peace deal over Kosovo failed, appeared phlegmatic as he left Belgrade. Mr Milosevic had the telephone numbers of key mediators, including himself, and could always call to stop the bombing, even after it started, he said. "Communications are always open, even in times of conflict."
Mr Holbrooke, who has kept in touch with Mr Milosevic since the two men negotiated the Dayton peace accord on Bosnia in 1995, said the situation was "the bleakest since we began this effort almost four years ago".
Mr Milosevic had refused demands both to stop fighting in Kosovo and to allow NATO peacekeepers to enforce a proposed peace settlement for the embattled province.
A force of 430 NATO jets from the US, Britain and other nations was last night being readied in air bases in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. NATO forces were also preparing plans for possible Serb retaliation: German anti-aircraft units are on high alert in Macedonia, which borders Kosovo, where an 11,000-strong NATO force is being assembled for possible peacekeeping duties in Kosovo.
Fears about fall-out from any military action prompted two airlines, Lufthansa and Air France, to follow British Airways in suspending flights to Belgrade, while Yugoslavia's state airline said many of its own flights into the country had also been cancelled.
The only glimmer of hope was an apparent slowdown of fighting in Kosovo itself, following the Yugoslav army's declaration on Monday that it would stop fighting if the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army also halted its attacks.
But in Kosovo all things are relative: Kosovo sources reported five villages ablaze and fighting continuing for control of the northern Cicavica mountain.
A KLA source in Geneva said rebel units now had their hands full trying to care for civilians, following the withdrawal of many aid workers from the area.
As President Clinton and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, spoke last night about military action against Mr Milosevic in tones which seemed designed to prepare their respective peoples for the consequences of war, France said it would join any NATO-led action. But Russia remained opposed, claiming the use of force could destabilise the world.
Air strikes defied "common sense and could destabilise the situation in the world. We are categorically against this", the Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, said during a brief stopover in Shannon on his way to Washington, a trip he cancelled to return immediately to Moscow.
Mr Primakov accused Western nations of double standards in considering air strikes against Moscow's traditional Serb allies.
"Maybe someone will feel like attacking Turkey because the Kurdish issue is not solved, or Spain because the Basque problem is not solved. I won't even mention the country in which I am a guest," he said in a reference to the peace process in Northern Ireland.
He repeated Russia's stance that the use of force without a Security Council resolution was unjustified and that the potential for negotiations had not been exhausted with a country which was not an aggressor against a foreign nation.
"This would completely change the entire character of the world order put in place after the World War," he said before returning home.
Arthur Quinlan adds:
The Russian Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, was within one hour of Gander airport in Canada when he decided to cancel his US trip and turn back for Moscow, after speaking by telephone to the US Vice-President, Mr Al Gore. Earlier at Shannon airport, he had been in conference for an hour with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, at the Airport Hotel.
After their meeting, Mr Primakov, in a joint press conference with the Taoiseach, told journalists he was totally against air strikes on Yugoslavia. "We do not see any reason for it, as all the possible political possibilities have not been used. Moreover, we are talking about a country that is not conducting aggression against any outside nation."
He asked: "Maybe someone would like to make an air strike against Turkey because the Kurdish problem has not been solved, or against Spain , where there is still the Basque problem to be solved".
The Russian party spent nearly three hours at Shannon, on what which was to have been a stopover of 1 1/2 hours en route to Washington for joint American talks on technical and economic co-operation.