The American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has warned that NATO air strikes against Serbian targets remain a possibility, despite the apparent progress made at the talks on Kosovo in France. The French host at the chateau in Rambouillet, Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, said the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians have agreed a deal which will give the disputed province autonomy within the Yugoslav federation. Further talks on implementing the agreement are to take place next month.
This evening, the major powers said that agreement has been reached on “substantial autonomy” for Kosovo and a conference on implementing the accord will be held in France beginning on March 15. In a statement read to a news conference in Rambouillet, Ministers of the six-nation Contact Group called for an immediate ceasefire, saying those who provoked hostilities or prevented the completion of an interim peace accord would be held accountable. The British Foreign Secretary and conference co-chairman, Robin Cook, said that while they had not secured signatures from either the Serbian or ethnic Albanian delegations he expected a political agreement on autonomy for Kosovo would be signed on or before March 15.
The United States, which has been playing a central role in the discussions, said the ethnic Albanian delegation has asked for a two-week delay to allow it to consult its supporters at home and the guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army. It is not yet clear whether the Serbs have accepted the presence of a NATO force of up to 30,000 troops to police any agreement.
The second deadline for agreement at the peace talks had passed earlier today without sign of a settlement. In Washington, President Clinton said "important disagreements" were holding up the peace talks. Both Serbs and ethnic Albanians had withheld a response to mediators' proposals for a political agreement on autonomy for the southern Serbian province. Foreign Ministers of five of the six-nation contact group arrived at the peace talks today to make an eleventh-hour hour assessment of the state of the negotiations. Only Russia, which opposes Western threats to attack Serb targets, did not send its Minister. A senior NATO military officer also joined the talks at Rambouillet this morning.
Up to the settlement deadline, neither side looked close to accepting the proposed international peace plan. The ethnic Albanians were insisting on independence for Kosovo after a three-year period of autonomy. The Serbs appeared ready to accept a political deal, but remained opposed to allowing a NATO peacekeeping force into the province. To underline their determination, they took defensive measures on the province's border with Macedonia. In northern Kosovo, fighting was reported for a second consecutive day between Serbian troops and Albanian rebels.
