China is reported to be having difficulties with the draft UN Security Council resolution for bringing an end to the NATO air campaign but the council may approve it today.
The draft, which was approved by the G8 foreign ministers after two days of tough discussions in Cologne, Germany, was presented at an informal session of the Security Council in New York yesterday.
China, which has a veto as one of the five Permanent Members of the council, said it would not allow a formal discussion of the draft while NATO aircraft were bombing Yugoslavia.
But in Washington, President Clinton said that the bombing would continue until Yugoslav forces began to withdraw from Kosovo. "The key now, as it has been from the beginning of this process, is implementation. A verifiable withdrawal of Serb forces will allow us to suspend the bombing and go forward with the [peace] plan," Mr Clinton said as he began a meeting with President Arpad Goncz of Hungary.
Defence Secretary Mr William Cohen said that if the bombing stopped before the Serbs began to withdraw forces the debate in the Security Council could drag on. "So we would have a situation where we would have a paper agreement but no compliance and the potential for having a long extended debate in the Security Council, and that would work to the disadvantage of the US and the allied forces," Mr Cohen told reporters.
China's deputy ambassador to the UN, Mr Shen Guofang, told reporters in New York that he had some difficulties with the draft resolution, especially concerning China's demand for a bombing halt and that he needed instructions from Beijing.
China also had difficulties with a reference to the international tribunal for war crimes and the proposed adoption of the resolution under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter which permits the use of force if necessary.
The US is said to have been given private assurances that China will not veto the draft resolution when a halt to the bombing allows the Security Council to discuss it formally and have a vote. This could happen very soon after NATO confirms that a withdrawal of Yugoslav forces has begun.
The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, said that the civilian and military aspects of the return of the Kosovo refugees would have to be very carefully co-ordinated.
Yesterday President Clinton telephoned President Boris Yeltsin for the second day running on the ending of the NATO campaign and the peace plan. Mr Clinton also sent the Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, to Moscow to discuss the details of how Russian forces could participate in the peace-keeping force for Kosovo without coming under NATO command.
China will not oppose the G8 proposal when the UN Security Council considers the measure, White House spokesman Mr Joe Lockhart said yesterday. "It's our expectation that China will not stand in the way of a peaceful solution to the conflict in Kosovo," he said.