A CIA analyst raised doubts about the targeting of a building which was later bombed and which turned out to be the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, but he was ignored, according to US officials.
The embassy was destroyed in a NATO air strike on May 7th which killed three Chinese and injured 20 others. NATO said the intended target was a Yugoslav arms agency a short distance away.
The CIA has now drawn up a confidential report on the incident and is briefing members of Congress.
According to the CIA report, a mid-level intelligence analyst at the agency raised doubts that the building targeted as housing the Yugoslav arms agency was the correct one as he had some familiarity with it. Apparently, these doubts were not passed on to a more senior level.
When the analyst returned from a training course some time later, the US bombers had already left on their mission.
A report in the Washington Post says an intelligence official got the correct address of the arms agency from the Internet but then used the numbering of buildings on parallel streets to mistakenly identify a spot on the map of Belgrade.
It had already emerged that those planning the bombing mission used outdated maps which showed the Chinese embassy at its old address several miles away.
Meanwhile, it was claimed yesterday in Washington that the Russian Foreign Ministry was aware in advance of plans for Russian troops to seize Pristina airport in Kosovo ahead of NATO troops. The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, had told the US then that the seizure was "a mistake" and the troops would be pulled back.
But now an unnamed Pentagon official has told the Washington Times that, based on intercepted Russian communications, "there was no confusion at all about this".