Refugee camps will have to be prepared for winter, even if a peace agreement comes "tomorrow or next week", according to the Pentagon in Washington.
"We will winterise the camps as appropriate, and I think that even if there were a peace agreement tomorrow or next week, it's not reasonable to assume that every refugee would return home instantly," said the Pentagon spokesman, Mr Kenneth Bacon.
"Some [refugees] may end up in Macedonia or Albania through the winter, so winterisation is something that has to be done," he added.
According to figures published yesterday by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, an estimated 979,614 ethnic Albanians have fled Kosovo since the start of the crisis nearly 15 months ago. The majority, about 781,600, left after the start of NATO air strikes on March 24th and most are in Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Another 74,014 Kosovan refugees have been transferred from Macedonia to third countries.