The US and NATO have rejected a plea for a pause in the air strikes on Yugoslavia by the Rev Jesse Jackson, who has secured the release of three US soldiers held prisoner by the Serb forces.
Americans were stunned at the weekend to see pictures from Belgrade of Mr Jackson holding hands and praying with President Milosevic, who is routinely denounced as "evil" and a "war criminal". There are fears in Washington that Mr Milosevic has brought off a propaganda coup by releasing the soldiers after the White House had tried to dissuade Mr Jackson from travelling to Belgrade during the air strikes.
In a round of interviews on American TV yesterday, Mr Jackson urged President Clinton, to whom he gives spiritual advice in times of difficulty, "not to miss this opportunity" and to respond positively to Mr Milosevic's gesture in releasing the soldiers.
Mr Clinton welcomed the release of the soldiers 31 days after being seized on the border between Kosovo and Macedonia, but made it clear that the bombing will go on. Referring to the "over one million Kosovans who are unable to go home because of the policies of the regime in Belgrade," he said: "Today we reaffirm our resolve to persevere until they . . . can return with security and self-government".
The search for a diplomatic solution will continue today in Washington, however, when Mr Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore meet Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Russian special envoy to the Balkans. The meeting was arranged during a telephone call between Mr Clinton and President Yeltsin.
Mr Jackson's plea for a halt to the bombing "to break the cycle of violence" to allow diplomacy to work seemed to fall on deaf ears in the Clinton Administration, but senior Republicans like the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Trent Lott, urged the President to "give peace a chance".
There was also a cold response in the Administration to Mr Milosevic's wish to meet Mr Clinton face-to-face, which is said to be contained in a letter Mr Jackson is bringing back from Belgrade.
The US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, said there was no way that Mr Clinton would meet Mr Milosevic. While welcoming the release of the US prisoners-of-war, Mr Cohen said that the gesture "cannot obliterate the stench of evil and death inflicted in the killings fields of Kosovo", where 4,000 persons have been "executed" by Serb forces.
The three soldiers, Sergeant Andrew Ramirez, Sergeant Christopher Stone and Private Steven Gonzales, arrived at Ramstein base in Germany hours after their release. The three crossed the border into Croatia chanting: "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last." They said they had been well treated in captivity although kept apart from each other with little reading material.
In Brussels, NATO congratulated Mr Jackson for his success, but the NATO spokesman, Mr Jamie Shea, took a hard line towards making any gesture such as a halt to the bombing. Instead the air strikes have been intensified following the release of the three US soldiers.
NATO said it regretted the bombing of a bus carrying civilians in Kosovo. The Yugoslav media has reported up to 60 dead, including children, in the bus which was hit on a bridge at Luzane. Foreign reporters said that they counted 23 bodies at the scene.
NATO also confirmed the loss of two US aircraft. An F-16 which crashed near the border with Croatia, but its pilot was rescued later. The Yugoslav authorities said the F-16 was brought down by anti-aircraft fire, but NATO said it was because of engine failure. A US navy Harrier jet crashed in the Adriatic on a training exercise.
NATO expressed its deep regret over an incident involving the bus carrying civilians, saying it came into the firing line during a night of intensified attacks against the Yugoslav army.
NATO said the bus was not the target. "We did not bomb a bus - we hit a bridge," Col Konrad Freytag retorted when questioned about the incident at a press briefing in Brussels yesterday. "There was no intent to harm civilians during this strike," he said, and he repeated how deeply NATO regretted the accident and that care would continue to be taken at all times to protect civilians.
Saturday's focus was on the Serb military forces and the Command and Control Network. "Our strategy is straightforward," Mr Shea said. "Cut them off, pin them down and take them out."
More than 600 sorties took to the air, hitting a series of army command posts, a number of Serb field artillery guns, armoured tanks, eight transmission towers, a number of communication relay towers, explosives and ammunitions storage facilities and more than a dozen bridges.
One of the pilots homed in on the Luzane bridge on a key north-south supply route for the Yugoslav military and special police, according to a NATO source. He sighted carefully while being fired on from the ground, concentrated and sent the missile. The bus moved onto the bridge and took a direct hit, the source said.