Ireland has backed a European Union declaration that effectively endorses the conditions set out by NATO for ending the air-strikes on Yugoslavia. However, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews said Ireland remained a neutral country and would like to see an early end to the bombing. EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Luxembourg also set out a stability plan for the Balkans which would eventually lead to EU membership for countries such as Macedonia.
The acting Cypriot President, Spyros Kyprianou, has arrived in Belgrade. He has travelled to Yugoslavia to negotiate the release of the three US soldiers captured by Serbians last week. The Cypriot government has been acting a mediator between Serbia and NATO.
The Cypriot mission was reported to have been complicated by renewed NATO air strikes on Serb targets. A Cypriot source in Athens said that the intense NATO bombing raids had generated a 'negative climate' for the mission. In an interview on CNN television early today, the American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, said that the soldiers should be let go without delay.
Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, is pressing for a high-level international initiative to deal with the crisis in Yugoslavia. Mr. Yeltsin has said that Russia is working on new proposals to try to halt the bombings. He has called for an urgent meeting of the world's top foreign ministers to discuss the crisis.
Russian news agencies quoted President Yeltsin as saying that NATO air-strikes were "unconscionable", but ruling out military help for Yugoslavia. Talks on the crisis have been taking place in Moscow between the head of the Organisation for Security in Europe and Russian officials.
The Deputy German Foreign Minister, Wolfgang Ischinger, has said that he is confident President Milosevic will make a new peace offer to the Western powers soon. Mr. Ischinger met Russian diplomats yesterday and said that Moscow was involved in intensive talks with Belgrade concerning a fresh peace offer. A spokesman for President Yeltsin confirmed that Russia was working on new proposals to solve the Kosovo crisis.
