NATO ends bombing as G8 summit backs ceasefire

The Secretary-General of NATO has officially ended NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Javier Solana said the bombing would stop because all Serb forces had now left Kosovo, in compliance with international agreements. It's estimated that 50,000 Serb civilians have also fled the province, bombing was suspended 10 days ago.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Group of Eight major industrial nations have ended their summit meeting in Cologne with a call on Serbs and ethnic Albanians to respect the ceasefire in Kosovo.

In a draft of their final communique, the leaders also said they would hold a summit in the Balkans to discuss plans for promoting economic and political stability in the region.

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, both repeated their view that no reconstruction aid should be given to Serbia while President Slobodan Milosevic remains in power. Mr Blair said the people of Serbia should bear some share of responsibility for war crimes committed in their name, including the killing of thousands of innocent people by Serb paramilitaries.

Meanwhile, the United States and Russia reaffirmed on Sunday their willingness to conduct new negotiations on reducing the level of each side's nuclear warheads and other arms control measures.

President Clinton commented on the impasse in Northern Ireland saying that the next 10 days will be vital for the Northern peace process. He was speaking after a 15-minute meeting with the British Prime Minister on the fringes of the G8 summit in Cologne. Mr Clinton told Tony Blair he would do all he could to help, and promised to work night and day for the peace process.

A joint US-Russian statement issued after US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin met said: "The two governments will strive to accomplish the important task for achieving results in these negotiations as early as possible."

The two governments would hold discussions on possible changes in the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and a START III nuclear reduction treaty this summer, the statement said.

The United States would like to change the ABM treaty to allow for development of a missile defence system that would be banned the way the treaty reads now. Russia would like to start START III talks without putting START II in effect because it cannot afford the buildup that the treaty would require. The agreement was evidence of a thaw in East-West relations, which were chilled by NATO's 11-week-long bombardment of Yugoslavia.

"The two governments express their confidence that implementation of this joint statement will be a new significant step to enhance strategic stability and the security of both nations," the statement said.