Russian stance at G8 talks hailed as positive

As yesterday's meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations dragged on into the evening, Western officials were at pains to stress that the mood of the talks was always warm and constructive. Despite the deadlock over a number of key issues, the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, was at his most conciliatory.

The purpose of yesterday's meeting of the G8, the seven leading industrialised nations and Russia, was to agree on a UN Security Council resolution based on the peace deal brokered with Yugoslavia last Thursday by Finland's President, Mr Martti Ahtisaari, and the Russian envoy, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin.

The Russian delegation arrived at the German government guest-house in Bonn with 20 objections to the five-page draft resolution. Most of these were resolved quickly but, by the time the ministers had met for 21/2 hours, the time originally allotted for the entire meeting, three or four key problems remained.

Russia objected to the peacekeeping force being sent into Bosnia under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, which allows the use of force without the consent of the state concerned. Moscow preferred a milder mandate under Chapter VI, which governs peacekeeping as opposed to "peace-making".

An unexpected dispute arose over two clauses in the draft resolution calling on all UN member-states to co-operate as fully as possible with the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Western officials interpreted Moscow's stance as an attempt to make a conciliatory gesture to Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic, who was indicted as a war criminal last month.

The most difficult issue to resolve concerned the creation and composition of the international military and civilian presence in Kosovo. The two sides agreed that the civilian administration should be run by the UN but, not for the first time, the structure of the peacekeeping force became a sticking point.

Russia also raised questions about how heavily armed the force should be and about its command structure, although both sides agreed that the details of the relationship between Russian and NATO troops in the force should be worked out later.

By late afternoon, the meeting had overrun by more than four hours, and the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, left Kosovo Albanian leaders waiting in Cologne. The foreign ministers now focused on a joint proposal by France, Germany and Britain to synchronise the withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo, a halt to NATO's bombing campaign and the endorsement of a UN Security Council resolution.

Russia was adamant that no foreign troops should enter Kosovo without a UN mandate and called on NATO to stop bombing immediately as a gesture of goodwill. But NATO held firm to its demand that Serbian forces must start to withdraw from Kosovo before the bombing could stop.

Under the European proposal, a draft UN Security Council resolution would be sent to New York for immediate approval. The Serbian military withdrawal from Kosovo, the end of NATO's bombing campaign and the passage of the Security Council resolution would then take place almost simultaneously.

Shortly after yesterday's meeting began, Mr Ahtisaari arrived at the meeting with news that he had spoken with Mr Milosevic on the telephone and that the Yugoslav President had assured him he was still backing last week's deal. By the time the sun began to set across the Rhine, the Finnish President was preparing to fly to China, making a trip he cancelled on Sunday when the prospect of peace in the Balkans appeared to have faded.