Pressure on Milosevic eases to allow Yeltsin to mediate

Determined to maintain a united front against Serbia, foreign ministers of the six-nation Contact Group yesterday pulled back from a direct ultimatum to Belgrade over Kosovo to allow Russia a chance to apply pressure on its sometime ally.

The group, consisting of the US, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, took time out from a meeting of the G8 in London to debate the crisis. With Japanese and Canadian ministers also in attendance, they approved a number of demands which President Yeltsin will put to the Yugoslav Federation President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, in Moscow on Monday.

A day after NATO ordered aerial exercises on the Serbian border and the preparation of military intervention options, the message may have been toned down slightly, but the threat of force was still there in the final declaration - if steps were not taken "without delay, there will be moves to further measures to halt the violence and protect the civilian population, including those that may require the authorisation of the United Nations".

In the face of likely Russian and Chinese vetoes at the Security Council, a more specific threat was simply not credible. Diplomats now hope that either Mr Yeltsin will prevail on Mr Milosevic to see sense or will become exasperated by his prevarication.

Some diplomats also argue that evidence of some moderation in Belgrade's methods in recent days may give the international community a breathing space to allow growing signs of internal dissent in the Federation to manifest themselves. And, Russia alone demurring, ministers added to the EU ban on new investment and freeze on Serbian official funds held abroad a pledge to stop international flights by the Yugoslav state airline, JAT. The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, reiterated Moscow's opposition to the use of force. "Measures are being considered against Yugoslavia. We are against these measures, but at the same time, there will be an exceptionally important meeting with Milosevic," Mr Primakov said.

The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, stressed the international community would prefer a diplomatic solution. But, she added, "as we have found in other places, the threat of the use of force . . . does work in support of diplomacy".

Ministers condemned "Belgrade's massive and disproportionate use of force which has resulted in widespread destruction and the deliberate displacement of large numbers of people".

The statement demanded four concrete measures by the Belgrade authorities: the immediate cessation of all action by the security forces involving the civilian population and withdrawal of special police and military units involved in repression against them; unimpeded access to the area for international monitors; facilitation of refugee returns and free access to them by humanitarian organisations; and rapid progress in political dialogue with the moderate Kosovo Albanian leader, Dr Ibrahim Rugova.

Urging the Albanian leadership to distance itself clearly from the violent separatism of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Ministers pledged to ensure the latter is denied financial and material support abroad.

Meanwhile, Dr Rugova was trying to persuade the international community he still commands majority local support. He told the German Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, at a meeting in London that the Kosovo Liberation Army did not enjoy wide popular appeal, and was quoted as insisting he was against the use of force to resolve the crisis and believed a solution could be found by negotiation.

Serbia's most outspoken nationalist politician, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Vojislav Seselj, said the NATO threat must be taken seriously and vowed a full defence. "We cannot give up Kosovo, whatever the cost, and we must defend it by all means because this is the only country we have," he said in Belgrade.

--(Additional reporting by Reuter)