Extra pressure will be put on the parties in Kosovo's stalling peace talks at a French chateau with a meeting this weekend of foreign ministers from key world powers.
With Serbs and ethnic Albanians still refusing to meet each other face to face at Rambouillet, outside Paris, French officials said a meeting of the foreign ministers of the six-power Contact Group might give fresh impetus to the talks.
The French Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, arrived at the chateau with his British counterpart, Mr Robin Cook, and neither sounded optimistic about progress made in three days of talks.
"Don't expect miracles," Mr Cook said. "It's not going to happen suddenly, out of the blue."
The Serbs and Albanians are still refusing to meet in the same room. Instead European, American and Russian officials have given new meaning to the word "shuttle diplomacy", racing backwards and forwards between the different delegations each camped on different floors of the chateau.
Contact Group ministers had been due to meet next week, to view the plan supposedly hammered out by the delegations locked into the chateau. Instead, they are likely to bring the meeting forward, and couple it with a stern warning of military action against both parties unless they find an agreement.
Most of the proposed peace plan has in fact already been drawn up by a US envoy, Mr Chris Hill.
The Hill plan, twice rejected last year by both sides, calls for Kosovo's ethnic Albanian minority to give up plans for independence, with Serb-run Yugoslavia giving Kosovo in return a wide measure of autonomy.
Mr Hill said yesterday he was optimistic. "It is not easy, frankly it's not a lot of fun," he said. "But we are making progress. We're moving ahead through some very difficult territory."
Diplomats say both sides have accepted the autonomy deal, which would last for three years, after which the independence question would be open for review.
But the sticking point is NATO. The Albanians say a NATO force is vital to make sure the Serbs stick to any deal. The Serbs say a NATO occupation force would infringe their sovereignty.
An official of the Kosovo Liberation Army, in touch with the delegation inside the chateau by mobile phone, said the NATO question had not yet been touched on. "Not very much has been achieved so far," he said. "Nothing is possible without NATO coming in."