US envoy due to warn Serbia of military action

The US special envoy to the Balkans, Mr Richard Holbrooke, will make a last-ditch attempt today to persuade Serbia to comply with UN decisions on Kosovo or face the probability of military action within days.

The Austrian Foreign Minister, Mr Wolfgang Schussel, whose country holds the current EU presidency, said Mr Holbrooke's message to President Slobodan Milo sevic of Yugoslavia would be "the last" before a final decision is made on military intervention.

"I hope it will be heard," he said at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg, but added: "We have no indication in that direction."

That message was reinforced by Russia, still the major obstacle to UN Security Council approval for military action. Russia still opposes any intervention circumventing the Security Council, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Vladimir Rakhmanin, said in Moscow.

But, unusually, he admitted that Russia may not be able to prevent NATO going ahead anyway, and he warned Belgrade: "Unless resolute steps are taken immediately to radically remedy the situation in Kosovo, NATO could go ahead with its plans to use force against Yugoslavia."

The German Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, said on German radio that he still hoped for a political solution. But, he warned, if there were no compromise NATO would act and he expected Russia to go along with NATO action if it came to it.

Mr Holbrooke, who was passing through Brussels on his way to Belgrade, was blunt about the rejection by the international community of Serbian claims that it was winding down its operations and withdrawing troops from the disputed province.

"While the level of fighting [in Kosovo] may have abated temporarily, the capacity for its resumption is there," he warned. "The situation remains fully as serious today as it was a week or two ago."

He was speaking at NATO headquarters after talks with the NATO secretary-general, Mr Javier Solana, and the allied supreme commander, Gen Wesley Clark. Mr Holbrooke said they had made clear to him that significant military forces, regular forces and police remain in Kosovo.

He said he was going to Belgrade to impress on Mr Milosevic the extreme gravity of the situation - he is widely regarded as one of those to whom Mr Milosevic does actually listen. He will also visit Kosovo's capital, Pristina, for talks with ethnic Albanian leaders.

European diplomats now expect a week of frenetic diplomatic activity. Mr Holbrooke's visit, they say, is likely to push back any Security Council resolution arising from the UN Secretary-General's report on Kosovo until later in the week.

And both NATO ministers and the Contact Group, including Russia, are scheduled to meet separately on Thursday, although the need to keep Russia on board as long as possible may result in the former meeting being postponed.

Meanwhile, EU Foreign Ministers moved to close loopholes in the sanctions against Serbia, notably reports that several European airlines have a deal with JAT to fly its passengers to and from Belgrade, effectively undermining the EU flight ban.

They have also agreed to examine the reality that the freeze on funds held abroad by Yugoslav or Serb authorities has not stopped them getting access to EU capital and money markets through companies controlled by them or by third persons.

The EU is to send forensic experts from Finland and other states to examine sites of alleged atrocities in Kosovo.