Yugoslav officials struck a defiant stance yesterday against international military intervention in Kosovo, even as Britain warned that NATO action was looming.
A spokesman for President Slobodan Milosevic's party, Mr Ivica Dacic, said Yugoslavia "will defend itself as much as it will be able to". He added: "We are a sovereign country which defends its territorial integrity."
In Brussels, the Yugoslav Foreign Minister, Mr Zivadin Jovanovic, told his Belgian counterpart his country would not cede to the international community's key demand that Yugoslav security forces be withdrawn from the violence-wracked province. In Strasbourg, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, effectively laid down the gauntlet, telling Belgrade "military planning is well under way in NATO, with the full support of EU member-states, in case diplomacy alone proves inadequate".
He was speaking to the European Parliament, which later voted overwhelmingly in support of possible military action by NATO and the Western European Union. It also asked the UN to send observers to the region.
Talks so far have fallen far short of anything resembling a solution for Kosovo, whose mainly ethnic Albanian population is seeking greater independence from Belgrade. A Serbian crackdown on the province since late February has left more than 300 people dead. The UN refugee agency estimates at least 68,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, 23,000 of whom have crossed over into neighbouring Albania or Macedonia.
The Kosovo Democratic League (LDK), the main Albanian party in Kosovo, said yesterday fresh clashes had erupted between Serbian security forces and armed Albanian separatists.
One Serbian policeman was killed and five were wounded yesterday in an ambush by Albanian separatists 30 km west of Pristina, the Serbian Information Centre in Belgrade announced.
A spokeswoman for the Red Cross, Ms Beatrice Megevand, said Serbian forces had denied it and other humanitarian organisations access to victims of the conflict in Kosovo, despite promises by Mr Milosevic.
Russia, a traditional ally to Serbia, which along with Montenegro makes up Yugoslavia, continued its efforts to bring both sides to the negotiating table.