NATO'S most senior general warned the Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, yesterday that he risked "the destruction of his own country", as diplomatic efforts to end the Kosovo crisis appeared deadlocked.
With NATO threatening imminent air strikes, Mr Milosevic resumed talks with the US mediator, Mr Richard Holbrooke, but an official Yugoslav statement gave no hint of a breakthrough.
Diplomatic sources said President Clinton wanted the NATO allies to sign an "activation order" by the end of the week, authorising military intervention. The Greek Prime Minister, Mr Coastas Simitis, said Monday and Tuesday could be the final days for diplomacy.
President Clinton and the incoming German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, said after an Oval Office meeting yesterday that they agreed on NATO action. "We are agreement on the action order," Mr Clinton said.
Gen Wesley Clark, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, said the alliance was militarily in "a heightened state" and Mr Milosevic was dicing with destruction. "The whole world is asking, why would a single man want to risk the ravages of armed conflict and the destruction of his own country in order to maintain a regime of repression which has turned a political problem into a severe and growing humanitarian tragedy?" he said.
Mr Holbrooke held his fourth meeting with Mr Milosevic this week, seeking agreement to pull back Serbian troops and end a seven-month crackdown on majority ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo.
But the official Tanjug news agency, quoting a presidency account of the meeting, said Mr Milosevic was sure that Yugoslavia's "arguments . . . will prevail over warlike intentions".
Mr Holbrooke made no immediate comment and returned to the US embassy to consult Washington by telephone, a US source said. Before the talks, the envoy called the situation "extremely serious" and said NATO was intensifying its preparations for military action.
"This has to be resolved certainly within a week. Some resolution has to take place because time is running out as far as the people who are up in the hills" are concerned, said the US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, referring to an estimated 300,000 refugees in Kosovo.
NATO issued its threat of air strikes in response to months of fighting in which between 800 and 1,500 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, have been killed. It was finally spurred to act by the massacres of several dozen Albanian villagers last month, allegedly by Serbian police and soldiers.
Mr Milosevic has described the NATO threats as "criminal aggression".
The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, said NATO plans involved possible "successive co-ordinated attacks" against Yugoslavia, not just a one-off air strike. But the French Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, said an initial strike would not be on a large scale, and would be followed by a pause for further negotiations.
Italy, host to key airbases from which any NATO action would be launched, was plunged into political limbo yesterday as the Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, lost a vote of confidence and the President, Mr Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, accepted his resignation.
Russia, China and India all stepped up their warnings against any NATO action not explicitly licensed by the Security Council.
Kosovo Albanian leaders defied efforts to moderate their demand for outright secession. "The best solution is independence, with guarantees for local [Kosovo] Serbs, in some kind of international protectorate," Mr Ibrahim Rugova, the main ethnic Albanian political leader, said. At the same time, an exodus of embassy staff, their dependants and aid workers gathered pace. Relief agency, Medecins sans Frontieres, said said tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees had "no chance" of surviving the coming winter unless they were allowed to return to their villages.
Mr Cook stressed the use of force was a matter for NATO and Russia would not be invited to approve it. Moscow warned of "dire consequences" if the West tried to bypass the UN Security Council.
The authoritarian president of former Soviet Belarus said yesterday he was ready to provide arms to Yugoslavia to fight the Western powers but believed they would not be needed. Mr Alexander Lukashenko said: "We have enough arms to provide the Yugoslavs with the most modern weaponry for battle, with both missiles and planes."