Western diplomats moved swiftly yesterday to put into effect the Kosovo peace deal amid signs that NATO's bombing campaign could end tomorrow.
Britain's Gen Sir Michael Jackson will today meet senior Yugoslav officers at the Macedonian border with Kosovo to deliver instructions on the timetable for Yugoslavia's withdrawal from the province.
In the meantime, efforts to secure support for a UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo reached fever pitch with the announcement that a meeting of foreign ministers from the G8, the seven leading industrial countries and Russia, had been brought forward to tomorrow.
The Finnish President and EU envoy, Mr Martti Ahtisaari, is expected to travel to Beijing next week to persuade China to support a Security Council resolution. China and Russia both said yesterday that they would support one only if NATO first halted its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
Western officials suggested that, if Gen Jackson's negotiations with his Yugoslav counterparts go according to plan, the bombing campaign could end tomorrow and the first peacekeeping troops enter Kosovo on Tuesday. The talks, to take place near Blace, will focus on the timetable for withdrawal of Yugoslav troops and the creation of a corridor for the withdrawal.
Yugoslav army and police personnel would have 36 hours following a halt in bombing to retreat to specified pullback points, and about a week to complete their withdrawal. They will be obliged to use specific routes to reach the exit corridor and they will be obliged to leave behind their 200 tanks and some other heavy equipment in Kosovo.
In Belgrade, pressure is mounting on President Milosevic. Serbia's biggest opposition party yesterday called for early elections, saying the leadership should answer to charges that it destroyed the country. The Democratic Party's Deputy President, Mr Zoran Zivkovic, who is mayor of Nis, one of the most bombed cities of the war, said the government should have settled sooner.
"Several thousand people died, thousands of homes have been destroyed, as well as infrastructure, fuel and electricity, radio transmitters and bridges . . . The first order of business is that those who have destroyed this country from within over the last 10 years must leave positions of power," he said.
Britain yesterday ordered an extra 4,000 soldiers to the Balkans, including paratroopers, and Washington indicated that US Marines could be among the first troops to enter Kosovo.
