Albright and Cook oppose sending ground troops to Kosovo

The American Secretary of State and the British Foreign Secretary have together expressed their continuing opposition to deploying ground troops in Kosovo in advance of a peace settlement. Madeleine Albright and Robin Cook were addressing a news conference in Washington where NATO is holding a fiftieth anniversary summit. Amid talk of NATO reviewing its plans for ground troops, Mr. Cook said that they were not going to commit ground forces in a hostile environment, nor did they need to. He said that time was their greatest ally.

Russia's new Balkans envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin, has had talks with President Milosevic on proposals to end the conflict. Sources close to the talks said that they continued longer than originally planned but gave no details.

The US President and the British Prime Minister are reported to have agreed with NATO's decision to look again at the possibility of deploying ground troops in Kosovo. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair have been meeting in Washington. A study completed before the start of the present air campaign does not commit the alliance to using troops, but plans to update it are fuelling speculation that this option is being actively considered.

After a meeting between the two leaders earlier today, a Downing Street spokesman told reporters that the NATO summit this weekend would show the world the strength of the alliance's resolve to defeat ethnic cleansing in the province. Mr. Blair's spokesman said that, while most of the talks were devoted to Kosovo, the two leaders also discussed the deadlock in the northern peace process and the world economic outlook. However, he made no mention of the use of ground troops in Kosovo, despite speculation that the matter will be considered at the NATO summit, which begins tomorrow.

Last night, the United States said that it is ready to update last Octobers' assessment that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed for a ground war in Kosovo. However, White House spokesman, Joe Lockhart, said there had been no change in current policy.

For the first time since the current conflict began, President Milosevic has given an interview in English about his view of the situation. In an interview with an American academic, Mr. Milosevic said that NATO had not only killed civilians and ruined infrastructure in Yugoslavia, but had breached the United Nations charter in its campaign. He accused the United States of trying to take control of Kosovo and said that, but for the action, there would have been no refugee problem.

In an interview in today's Washington Post, NATO Secretary General, Javier Solana, has authorised his military command to revise and update plans for a possible invasion.