Russia said yesterday it had invited President Slobodan of Yugoslavia to Moscow next week to seek a solution to the Kosovo crisis and avert NATO military action against Belgrade.
The Kremlin said Mr Milosevic would visit Moscow on Monday and Tuesday for talks with President Yeltsin, who promised the West earlier this week to try to use his influence with Belgrade to stop the explosive situation in the Yugoslav province from spiralling out of control.
"At the invitation of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Slobodan Milosevic will pay a working visit to Moscow on June 15th and 16th to discuss the situation in the [Balkan] region," the Kremlin said in a statement.
It was not clear from the statement whether the meeting had been cleared by Moscow with the international Contact Group on the former Yugoslavia, which also contains Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the US. Foreign ministers from the countries are to meet in London today following yesterday's NATO meeting in Brussels.
Remaining faithful to its strong traditional ties with Serbia, Russia has opposed western calls for economic and military action against Belgrade to punish Mr Milosevic.
The foreign ministry yesterday urged NATO to put a strict time-limit on planned military manoeuvres in Albania, which were brought forward to July in a show of force designed to keep the conflict in Kosovo from spreading.
But Moscow has tempered its hostility to calls for decisive intervention in Kosovo with promises to use its sway in Belgrade to push harder on the diplomatic front.
President Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro called yesterday for an "urgent end to violence" in Kosovo and urged Belgrade and Kosovo Albanians to return to the negotiation table.
"Violence in Kosovo must end urgently and a ceasefire must be executed by all sides, creating the conditions for continuing negotiations about a long-term political solution for the Kosovo issue," Mr Djukanovic said after talks with the British Minister of State, Mr Tony Lloyd.
Mr Djukanovic (36) was elected president in October of the small mountain republic of Montenegro, which along with Serbia forms the rump Yugoslavia. Relations between Montenegro and Serbia have deteriorated since Mr Djukanovic and his allies began to speak out against the internal and foreign policy of Mr Milosevic.
Meanwhile, Albanian border police are scrambling to maintain a semblance of control over the mountain divide between their country and Kosovo.