Sharp divisions emerged within NATO yesterday over the conduct of its campaign against Yugoslavia when Germany ruled out the sending by NATO of ground troops to Kosovo and raised the possibility of a halt to air strikes.
Britain and France have been pressing for the deployment of land forces as the most effective means of defeating Yugoslavia, but the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, said yesterday that such a move by NATO was out of the question.
"We can't even consider it," he said.
The Chancellor was speaking in the southern Italian city of Bari following a meeting with Italy's Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema.
The two men pledged to return the United Nations to the heart of the search for a solution to the Kosovo crisis and called for a UN Security Council resolution on the issue.
Italy has called for a halt to NATO's bombing campaign if Russia and China agree to a security council resolution calling for a withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and the return of ethnic Albanian refugees to their homes under the protection of an international peacekeeping force.
Mr Schroder yesterday welcomed the Italian proposal as a useful contribution to the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict but he said it was too early to say how NATO's bombing campaign might be halted.
"I hope there will be a UN resolution. After that we will have to discuss whether or not a suspension of the bombing can be considered," he said.
The Chancellor's explicit rejection of the deployment of ground troops will irk his partners in Britain and France who are pressing the United States to agree to a land invasion of Kosovo before August. US military chiefs are also believed to favour an escalation of the campaign on the grounds that the use of air power alone is unlikely to force President Slobodan Milosovic to agree to NATO's demands.
AFP adds:
NATO war planes dropped two projectiles last night on a fuel depot in a suburb southwest of Belgrade, Tanjug news agency said. The Jugopetrol depot at Cukarica was hit at 10.37 p.m. (2037 GMT), the agency said, adding that nobody was hurt in the attack.
NATO officials have said fuel depots would be on their target list in a bid to choke off the Yugoslav forces' energy supplies.
