The prospect of peace in the Balkans moved closer yesterday, when the Western powers and Russia agreed on a proposal to allow refugees to return to Kosovo under the protection of an international peacekeeping force.
The agreement, which will form the basis of a UN Security Council resolution, envisages substantial autonomy for Kosovo but effectively rules out independence for the province from Yugoslavia.
Foreign ministers from the G8, which comprises the world's seven leading industrial nations and Russia, agreed on seven principles for a peace settlement during a meeting in Bonn.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said the significance of the agreement lay in the fact that "the Russians are now on board". The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, described the proposal as "a considerable step forward" in the search for a resolution to the conflict in Kosovo. But he ruled out an immediate halt to NATO's bombing campaign.
President Clinton welcomed the agreement as a significant step forward, but he warned that the search for peace was a long process and said NATO would continue its bombing campaign aggressively.
The G8 principles call for an immediate end to violence in Kosovo and the withdrawal of all Serbian military and other forces. Ethnic Albanian refugees would be allowed to return to their homes and international aid agencies would be permitted to operate freely throughout Kosovo.
Kosovo would be governed initially by an interim administration approved by the Security Council but the province would later achieve a substantial measure of self-government. The principles make clear, however, that Kosovo must remain part of Yugoslavia and that the Kosovo Liberation Army must be disarmed - possibly as a prelude to transformation into a police force.
Western diplomats claimed as a major triumph the securing of Russian agreement to a UN-endorsed "international civil and security presence" for Kosovo. But it soon became clear that Russia differs from the West on the composition of such a force.
Ms Albright and the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, stressed that NATO would have to form the core of any force, if it was to provide credible security for the refugees to return.
But the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, insisted that NATO could not participate in the peacekeeping force without the approval of Belgrade.
"We have written in the principles that we guarantee the sovereignty of Yugoslavia. Without the agreement of that state, nothing is possible," he said.
The Russian President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, further tempered the mood by saying in Moscow: "The shadow of war is hanging over Europe today. NATO is carrying out naked aggression against a sovereign state -Yugoslavia." He added that peace must be restored, based on principles established by the UN.
The G8 principles guarantee the safety of ethnic Albanian refugees returning to Kosovo and promise economic help for the region. But they say nothing about how those responsible for atrocities should be brought to justice.
Yugoslavia has already rejected a number of the G8 principles but Western diplomats were confident last night that Russia's agreement to key NATO demands would persuade President Slobodan Milosevic that he is now too isolated to reject a peace deal.
President Clinton said yesterday there could be an agreement without Mr Milosevic being forced from power.
