Kosovo's rival Albanian factions, the Kosovo Liberation Army and the pacifist leader, Mr Ibrahim Rugova, have agreed to form a common government after months of haggling.
The deal, strong-armed by the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, will see the party of Mr Rugova, who was elected as president of the Kosovo ethnic Albanians, fill vacant posts in a "provisional government" already set up by the KLA.
KLA spokesman Mr Pleurat Sedjiu said the plan meant Kosovars could present a joint front in negotiations over self-government with the Serbs: "It will be much better. Everybody will solve the political problems."
The agreement comes after Ms Albright summoned Mr Rugova, a chain-smoking intellectual, and Mr Hasim Thaci, a 29-year-old guerrilla commander, to Bonn earlier this week.
Both men have had extensive consultations with British and French diplomats in recent days.
A Western diplomatic source said the deal was brokered by Ms Albright at a breakfast meeting between Mr Thaci and Mr Rugova on Tuesday.
He said officials were sceptical about the apparent change of heart: "This is a manoeuvre by the Americans to show that the Albanians are together in support of NATO," he said.
"Actually, the events of the past two months have put the KLA in such a strong position that they have no real need to deal with Rugova," he added.
In fact the two men remain poles apart: The ageing Mr Rugova campaigned for eight years against Serbia on a platform of passive resistance.
Mr Thaci, having tried and failed to make student protests work in his native Pristina, took to the hills and rose through the ranks of the KLA, becoming an accomplished military commander and now its political head.
The dislike goes back as far as 1990, when Mr Rugova emerged to lead the Kosovars, shutting out the political party which started the KLA, the Popular League of Kosovo. Last month Mr Thaci and his allies, Albania's government, convened a meeting in Tirana designed to put together a common government, but Mr Rugova refused to attend.
A few days later, Mr Thaci refused to meet Mr Rugova to talk about the same thing when both men were in Paris.
The new-look provisional government formed by the two men looks decidedly lopsided, with the KLA holding most key cabinet positions, including prime minister - Mr Thaci - plus defence and interior ministries.
The only major post for Mr Rugova's party, the LDK, is that of foreign minister.
But Britain said last night it was happy that the two men had agreed to settle their differences.
"Obviously they are politicians, they have different political objectives," said a Foreign Office spokesman. "But we know they are both solidly behind what NATO is now doing."
Getting the Albanians to form a common front was a key objective in February, during peace talks that saw the Albanians sign up to a Western-designed peace plan at France's Rambouillet chateau.
Now the show of unity is seen as an important bargaining chip in the greater fight between NATO and the Russians over the shape of the province.
Both Mr Rugova and the KLA say they support the original Rambouillet proposals, which set out a form of self-government that gives wide powers to a Kosovo parliament, while keeping the province within Yugoslavia.
But there is the key difference: Although both sides say they want independence, Mr Rugova is more likely to settle for autonomy, while the KLA maintains it must eventually get independence.
Intensive discussions have been going on with the KLA to persuade them to "play ball" during any Serbian withdrawal. At meetings with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, Mr Thaci has been urged not to let his men rampage through Kosovo in the wake of any Serbian withdrawal.
Diplomats think he will agree, though they doubt if he will fulfil another key part of the Rambouillet accord - surrendering weapons. The KLA has already said it will keep its weapons - it wants Rambouillet changed to allow Kosovars to have a standing army, albeit one monitored by NATO.
Alliance officials doubt if NATO, short of going to war against the KLA, will have any more luck tracking down hidden weapons in Kosovo than it has had in four years of trying to do the same thing in Bosnia.
"It's going to be a tougher challenge in Kosovo," said the US chief of staff nominee, Gen Eric Shinseki, a former commander of US forces in Bosnia.
"It is a constant process of checking and rechecking. Even after 15 months pockets of weaponry were never accounted for," he added.
In the end, NATO will probably be happy for Mr Thaci and Mr Rugova to keep on fighting - as long as they do it within the walls of Kosovo's proposed parliament chamber.
The KLA will refrain from provoking Serb forces withdrawing from Kosovo, a representative of the guerrilla group in Germany said yesterday in Bonn. "Our units will not attack Serb forces," Mr Sabri Kicmari told the German television network ARD.