The talks aimed at bringing peace to Kosovo were stalled last night, but the Contact Group negotiators were hoping that a facesaving agreement on foreign troops, involving Russians being deployed, would persuade the Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, to accept their terms.
The US Secretary of State, Mrs Madeleine Albright, conveyed the impression that the Albanians had been good colleagues, whereas the Serbs had not, when foreign ministers of the six-nation Contact Group decided - contrary to previous declarations - to extend the deadline for conclusion of the Rambouillet peace conference until 3 p.m. tomorrow.
"The Kosovar Albanians have negotiated with discipline and unity of purpose," Mrs Albright said. "The Serb refusal to even consider the presence of a NATO-led military implementation force in Kosovo is largely responsible for the failure to reach full agreement."
Mrs Albright told CNN late yesterday that she had made no progress in an hour-long meeting with the Serbian President, Mr Milan Milutinovic. "The Serbs are not engaging at all on one crucial aspect, which is military. I have stressed to them that half a deal is no deal," she said.
The US is now putting pressure on the Kosovan delegation to accept unilaterally the proposed agreement in order to prepare the way for possible military action against Serbia.
Diplomats in Belgrade said that Mr Milosevic was closeted with Russian envoys yesterday, discussing a way out of the impasse. This would involve Russian troops being part of NATO troop contingent, to give the force a not-quite-NATO complexion. There were also unconfirmed reports that an IMF loan would be approved to ease Serbia's economic crisis to win Mr Milosevic's agreement to foreign troop deployment in Kosovo.
Mrs Albright said yesterday that there were four possible outcomes to the negotiations. The best outcome would be acceptance by both sides, followed almost immediately by deployment of the NATO-led peacekeeping force. "If the Serbs crater the talks," Mrs Albright continued, "the result would be NATO bombing. If the Kosovars crater the talks, we would stop supporting them and use our efforts to stop them getting outside assistance." If both sides contribute to the failure of the negotiations, there would be no bombardment, only further efforts to foster an agreement.
Agencies add: Seven B-52 bombers from the United States arrived in Britain on Sunday as part of a build-up of warplanes in Europe for possible air strikes against Yugoslavia, a British Defence Ministry spokesman said. Meanwhile, in the Kosovan village of Orohovac three ethnic Albanians were shot dead yesterday and a police convoy came under fire, Serbian sources said.