Serbia's parliament voted overwhelmingly yesterday to send a delegation to the Paris peace talks on Kosovo, due to open tomorrow, but said that it should take a tough stand once there.
"We reaffirmed our unity and determination to resolve the problems of Kosovo through dialogue," the speaker, Mr Dragan Tomic, said after the vote.
He said there were two basic principles: that the problem be resolved peacefully and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and Yugoslavia be preserved.
Serbian deputies voted 227 to three to send delegates to the talks.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Vojislav Seselj, also spelled out what he called two unconditional positions Belgrade would take to the talks: no constitutional separation of Kosovo from Serbia and no foreign peacekeeping troops.
"We will use all means to prevent the arrival of NATO troops in Kosovo.
"There is no way that the troops of NATO can be deployed in Kosovo in a peaceful way," he said.
Serbia held its parliamentary debate two days before a deadline to attend talks or face NATO air strikes.
The Yugoslav federal and Serbian republic governments were to meet after the session.
The secessionist leaders of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority had already agreed to go to France to negotiate an autonomy deal, which the chief international mediator said yesterday he wanted concluded within a week of talks starting at the weekend.
Despite the early tough talk from Serbian leaders, NATO preparations for deployment in Kosovo took firmer shape yesterday when France said the force could have between 25,000 and 30,000 troops and be commanded by a British general.
The peace contingent would include US soldiers, the French Defence Minister, Mr Alain Richard, said.
Mr Seselj, who heads the ultranationalist Radical Party, part of Serbia's ruling coalition, said the Radicals would not attend and that those delegates who did would have strict instructions drawn up by the Serbian government and presented to parliament for adoption.
Peace proposals that will be on the table at the chateau in Rambouillet outside Paris would virtually end direct Serbian control of Kosovo, whose ethnic Albanian majority would attain broad autonomy within Yugoslavia.
Fighting between the Yugoslav security forces and separatist guerrillas from Kosovo's independence-minded ethnic Albanian majority has killed around 2,000 people in the past 11 months.
The international community fears all-out war in Kosovo if it cannot secure a political settlement soon.
The delegation had not been finalised, Mr Seselj said, but he doubted if the Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, would join the talks.
In overnight violence, a Serbian policeman was shot dead, a Serb in civilian clothes was found dead and three ethnic Albanians were killed in separate incidents, authorities said.
Mr Richard said the Kosovo peace force, which could be deployed after the peace talks, would also have US troops.
France was working with its NATO allies, mainly Britain, on creation of a force of between 25,000 and 35,000, he said.
Asked if a British general would command it, he said: "Our thoughts are indeed working along those lines."