• Monitors say Kosova "extremely tense"
• Large Serb forces in several villages of Podujeva (Radio21)
• 25 Serb policemen and 27 civilians were killed during the discussions at Rambouillet
• Belorussian experts for legal medicine still haven't finished the autopsy of the Reçak victims
• Serb Forces Launch Artillery Attack against Five Villages, Northern Kosova, Wednesday Afternoon
• NATO Warns Serbs Not To 'Destroy Peace'
• New Kosova Government, Serb Plans Reported
• Tense stand-off reported in central Kosova
• Serbia Denies Preparations for Kosova Offensive
• Kosova Rebels Split on Accord - Militants Contend Fight Must Go On
• No Winners at Kosova Peace Talks, and Albright Seems to Lose Prestige
• Kosova Rebels at Odds on Self-Rule Plan
• Clinton on Kosova: A Humane Factor
• U.S. Force Ready For Kosova When Called - General

Monitors say Kosova "extremely tense"

"But there's no more standing back for us. We cannot allow another massacre to take place here. We have enough forces to completely control a few areas in my zone. Militarily that's not a problem but politically we want to respect the ceasefire."

Large Serb forces in several villages of Podujeva (Radio21)

A convoy of Serb military forces backed up with more than 40 tanks and other motorised vehicles went from Prishtina in the direction of Vushtrri, Albanian sources in this town informed. 3 tanks of Serb military forces stopped in Stanoc i Poshtëm village, 2 on the triangle of Novolan-Bruznik-Dubofc roadway, whereas 10 other tanks went in the direction of Bukosh village, same sources informed.

This deployment of Serb forces upset the residents of this area, because it is feared of a new offensive of Serb forces.

Huge Serb military and police forces stationed in Volljakë area

Albanian sources from Malisheva also informed on deployment of Serb forces. Large Serb military and police forces continue to arrive for three days now in the vicinity of bauxite mine in Volljakë, at the localities called "Pishat" and "Guri i Zi".

This source, according to eyewitnesses informed that Serb forces is building up camps 2 kilometres long and have placed heavy armament.

An unidentified body found in Gjonaj village of Prizren today

In Gjonaj village of Prizren, in the vicinity of the village bridge the body of a killed person was seen, Albanian sources in this town informed. His identity could not be obtained, but it is said that he is male and about 50 years of age. The circumstances of this killing are unknown.

25 Serb policemen and 27 civilians were killed during the discussions at Rambouillet

Referring to Serb sources Kosova Information centre informed that during the discussions at Rambouillet, from February 6 until 23 106 armed incidents were evidenced.

According to Serb media it is said that KLA fighters killed 25 Serb policemen, whereas wounded 9. During this period 27 civilians were killed, among whom 17 Albanians, 5 Serbs and Montenegrins and 2 Roms.

Belorussian experts for legal medicine still haven't finished the autopsy of the Reçak victims

The experts for legal medicine of Bellorussia together with Serb doctors did the autopsy of killed Albanians in Reçak village, still haven't finished their work. This was declared by the Institution for Legal Medicine in Minks.

This declaration contradicts the statement of two doctors given by Serb press, in which the Belorussian experts evaluated that the victims were killed with firearm from the distance, which means that the autopsy is done.

Serb Forces Launch Artillery Attack against Five Villages, Northern Kosova, Wednesday Afternoon

PRISHTINA 24 Feb (KIC) - At 16:15 CET, Serb police and military forces launched a heavy attack against the villages of Godishnjak, Buricë, Llapashticë, Obrançë and Katunishtë near Podujeva, 30 km north of Prishtina.

Sources in the area said the Albanian settlements are being pounded with artillery and mortar fire from at least two positions, at Tabet e Llapashticës and Peran.

Houses in the town of Podujev have been trembling from heavy detonations, witnesses in the town told the KIC.

There has been no immediate word about possible casualties or damage in the today's Serb assault.

Rapid Buildup of Serb Forces in Suhareka, Albainains Reported Maltreated

PRISHTINA 24 Feb (KIC) - Serb police and army forces in big numbers and heavy armament were reported stationed today in many places in Suhareka municipality, south-west of Kosova's capital, Prishtina.

At around 14:00, Serb police sealed off the whole town of Suhareka, local sources told KIC who described the situation as highly tense in the town and the villages in the vicinity.

The LDK chapter in Suhareka named several Albanians beaten up and maltreated by the Serb police patrols today, including two secondary school students Rifat Gashi Avdi Sallahu.

The LDK could not figure out why there has been the rapid buildup of Serb forces in the area, noting only that the local population has been fearful of possible Serb forces crackdown and massacres.

Serb Army Forces Garrisoned Near Prizren

PRISHTINA 24 Feb (KIC) - Sources in Prizren reported today (Wednesday) of stepped up movement of Serb army and police forces in the area.

At around 10:00 CET, Serb soldiers in over a dozen tanks and trucks trailing artillery pieces stopped near the local primary school in Landovica village, causing panic amongst the pupils in the classrooms.

Half an hour later, the Serb forces moved out to be later garrisoned near the "Pojata" motel in Landovicë. The troop were reported still there in mid-afternoon.

NATO Warns Serbs Not To 'Destroy Peace'

By Claudia Parsons

VALENCIA, Spain (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Javier Solana warned Yugoslavia Thursday against launching a military offensive in Serbia's Kosova province, saying such action could ''destroy peace.''

``These weeks are to consolidate peace, not to take advantage and make any change in the situation,'' Solana told Reuters while attending an international conference in the Mediterranean port of Valencia.

A senior NATO official at The Hague said Wednesday that Yugoslavia might be preparing for a final military push to eradicate ethnic Albanian guerrillas before a March 15 deadline for a second round of peace talks.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told a Senate committee Wednesday that Serb movements showed Belgrade had not abandoned the idea of an offensive following an initial round of negotiations that ended in France Tuesday.

``I want to make very clear that if the Serbs take advantage of this opportunity that we are giving (and try) to destroy peace, we will not tolerate that,'' Solana said.

NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark also expressed concern Thursday about the buildup of Serb forces and warned that the alliance was ready to take action if needed.

``In Yugoslavia right now, the buildup of (Serb) forces is still present and we are still uncertain of what their intention is,'' he told reporters at the Valencia conference.

``NATO military authorities have their capabilities poised and ready for action as may be directed,'' he said.

Solana earlier had welcomed what he termed ``substantial progress'' made in the first round of peace talks, but he urged both parties to rapidly accept the peace plan in its entirety.

In the meantime, NATO officials have made clear that the alliance has the authority to take military action if Serbian forces violate their Oct. 25 pledge of restraint in Kosova.

Under threat of NATO air strikes, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic agreed last fall to reduce his forces in Kosova that had been waging a bloody crackdown on separatist guerrillas.

``We call on all parties to seek a political and diplomatic solution to the problem,'' Clark said Thursday.

New Kosova Government, Serb Plans Reported

By Michael Roddy

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Kosova Albanians were reported Wednesday to be forming a rebel-led provisional government while NATO sources said Serbs could be preparing to crush the separatists before peace talks resumed next month.

Kosova was mostly quiet after 17 days of peace talks ended in France Tuesday, but French President Jacques Chirac said the major powers must prevent a flare-up of fighting before the next round of peace talks on March 15.

Russia said the talks had made ``significant progress'' toward resolving the Kosova crisis, with some officials saying Moscow's diplomacy had triumphed over the American approach.

Ethnic Albanian delegates to the peace talks agreed on the provisional government, guaranteeing the prime minister's post to the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA), on the closing day of the negotiations Tuesday, the KLA's Kosovapress news agency said.

``On Feb. 23, 1999, the Kosova delegation to the Rambouillet meeting decided after consultations between the Kosova Liberation Army, the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK) and the United Democratic Movement (LBB) to form the provisional government of Kosova,'' the agency said.

It said that the powers would be shared equally but added that ``by mutual agreement, the prime minister will be nominated by the Kosova Liberation Army.''

Although the report could not be independently confirmed, a decision to form a new provisional government is a recognition of the KLA's increased political significance in Kosova, ethnic Albanian analysts said.

The main political figure in Kosova until recently has been Ibrahim Rugova, elected president of Kosova's ethnic Albanian majority community, but the rise of the KLA in the past year has undermined the appeal of his non-violent approach to achieving independence from Serbia.

The Kosova Albanian delegates were prevented from flying home from France because Yugoslav had not granted permission for their flight, a member of the delegation said, but the French government later arranged a flight for Thursday.

In the Hague, a senior NATO military official said Yugoslavia could be preparing for a final military push to eradicate Kosova guerrillas before the next round of talks.

The official said NATO was ``greatly concerned by a very substantial buildup of Serb forces including heavy armor, artillery, infantry, special forces, the planting of mines, and demolition preparations.''

Asked to comment on rumors in Kosova that Belgrade might plan to partition the province, the official said the army movements could indicate plans for defense of Serbia or parts of Kosova.

``Or more ominously,'' he said, ``they could be preparations for a final military push to eradicate opposition in Kosova either in conjunction with a failure of the (March 15) talks or as a prelude to a resumption of the talks.''

In Kosova, quiet returned to the village of Bukos, north of the provincial capital Pristina, a day after five Serbian policemen and a journalist were wounded in clashes between Serbian forces and the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA).

Serbian police in the village told Reuters one of their tanks was damaged late Tuesday when it was hit by three rockets fired by the ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas.

No one was injured, police said.

The office of the Kosova Verification Mission, run by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), reported the province overall had been calm overnight, the independent Belgrade-based Beta news agency said.

Serbian authorities later reported a man had been found dead but did not say who had killed him. Ethnic Albanian sources said the body of a 26-year-old ethnic Albanian man kidnapped Monday had also been found.

Tense stand-off reported in central Kosova

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) - International monitors on Thursday reported a tense and potentially violent situation in central Kosova between the towns of Orahovac and Suva Reka.

A monitor told Reuters the two Serb villages of Velika Hoca and Zociste had been virtually surrounded by the Kosova Liberation Army.

"This is of urgent concern to the MUP (Serbian Ministry of Interior special police)," the monitor for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said.

"The MUP are wanting to run one of their regular armored patrols down the main road between Suva Reka and Orahovac, which passes next to Velika Hoca and Zociste. We spotted a lot of KLA in the area there yesterday.

"Obviously there's potential for real trouble. We're trying to mediate between the two sides."

Fighting erupted at the weekend between Serbian security forces and separatists around the village of Studencane, which lies along the same Suva Reka-Orahovac road.

Aid workers on Thursday also reported the movement of at least 40 military trucks and armored vehicles with troops out of Pristina, Kosova's capital, towards Vucitrn, 25 miles (40 km) to the north.

Sporadic fighting in that area this week left one man dead, eight others wounded and a government tank disabled.

Yugoslavia triumphant

Yugoslav Serbs, meanwhile, proclaimed victory Wednesday in the recessed Kosova peace talks, ethnic Albanian leaders were reported to have formed a provisional government to rule the Serbian province until elections can be held.

Also, a senior NATO official said the Western military alliance was concerned by a substantial Serbian troop buildup -- a development he said might signal plans for a major push by Serbian forces against KLA rebels.

Speaking one day after Serbs and ethnic Albanians reached a partial agreement on Kosova autonomy at peace talks in France, Serbian President Milan Milutinovic was exultant. The talks are to resume March 15.

"Our principal efforts to preserve the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country were reaffirmed," Milutinovic told reporters.

He was referring to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's firm rejection of any NATO troops to be deployed as a peacekeeping force in Kosova.

Serbian state television repeatedly broadcast Milutinovic's description of attempts to pressure the Serbs into accepting NATO peacekeepers as a "farce and a circus."

Coalition reportedly will rule Kosova

The United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy have made clear that a NATO-led force is necessary to make any Kosova peace agreement stick.

Ethnic Albanian negotiators were ready to sign a peace accord giving their people significant autonomy in Kosova, the United States said after the talks recessed on Tuesday.

But the negotiators returned to Kosova to consult their constituencies before both sides reconvene.

The ethnic Albanians were unable to get international officials to go along with their demand for an independence referendum. Kosova is now part of Serbia, the dominant republic in what is left of Yugoslavia.

In Kosova, hard-line KLA spokesman Adem Demaci told the Albanian-language daily Kosova Sot: "We should rely on our forces and have confidence in our liberation army and in victory."

Ethnic Albanian sources said the ethnic Albanian negotiating team had decided to form a new government that will function until elections can be held.

The government will be a coalition of the KLA and two major political parties -- Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosova and Rexhep Cosja's Union of Democratic Movement -- the KLA's news agency Kosova Press and Rugova's party reported.

NATO worries about Yugoslav troop movements

The Yugoslav army has in recent days concentrated forces in northern Kosova and beyond its internal border toward central Serbia, with units coming from the eastern town of Nis. Belgrade had promised in an October deal with NATO that those troops would remain in their own territory.

Troop movements also have been reported this week in the extreme south of the province next to the border with Macedonia, where a NATO force of 6,000 troops is being assembled to act as the vanguard for a Kosova peacekeeping mission should it be agreed next month.

A senior NATO official said the alliance was "greatly concerned by a very substantial buildup of Serb forces, including heavy armor, artillery, infantry, special forces, the planting of mines and demolition preparations."

"They could be preparations for a final military push to eradicate opposition in Kosova, either in conjunction with a failure of the (March 15) talks or as a prelude to a resumption of the talks," he said.

Serbia Denies Preparations for Kosova Offensive

BELGRADE, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Belgrade on Thursday denied U.S. and NATO allegations that it was preparing for a spring offensive in its troubled Kosova province, but said its fight against "terrorists" would not abate.

"Serbia is not preparing any offensive," Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj told a weekly news conference at the headquarters of his ultra-nationalist Radical Party.

"But Serbia will continue to fight terrorism," he said. "Our police forces will not refrain from their regular activities aimed at crushing terrorism in Kosova."

On Wednesday, NATO reported a substantial buildup of Yugoslav military and police forces, saying Belgrade may be preparing for a final move to eradicate guerrillas in Kosova before a resumption of talks on March 15 between Serbs and separatist ethnic Albanians aimed at ending a year of fighting.

In Spain, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana warned Yugoslavia against launching a military offensive.

"These weeks are to consolidate peace, not to take advantage and make any change in the situation," Solana said while at an international conference in the Mediterranean port of Valencia.

Seselj underlined the readiness of his party members to "take to arms and defend their homeland" if need be, but said recent fighting in Kosova did not constitute an "offensive."

"We cannot talk about offensives. These are only police actions -- sometimes bigger and sometimes smaller," he said.

Seselj's statement was supported by a spokesman for the Socialist Party led by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

"Yugoslavia and Serbia will fight against terrorists regardless of whether a political agreement is reached or not," Ivica Dacic told the party's regular news conference.

Marathon talks in Rambouillet, France, between Serbs and ethnic Albanian separatists ended on Tuesday with only a partial political agreement on autonomy for the Serbian province.

But no deal was reached on the implementation of any settlement, which the West says must include NATO troops.

Seselj singled out Washington, saying the conference had achieved nothing, but had been useful for Serbia as it revealed the main U.S. goal -- to deploy troops in Kosova.

Washington's failure to attain that goal so far gave Serbia a certain breathing space, he said.

"But we have to be aware that the pressure (on Belgrade) will continue. The U.S. will conjure new tricks to harm Serbian people and take away from us what is ours," he said.

Both Dacic and Seselj reiterated Belgrade's opposition to the deployment of NATO troops to implement a possible peace deal which would include disarmament of ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

"There are some issues that should not even be discussed and those are arrival of foreign troops...and exclusion of Kosova from Serbia," said Seselj.

Dacic, referring to Belgrade's allegations that the West had armed the guerrillas, said: "It is unrealistic to expect that terrorists would be disarmed by the same people who armed them."

Kosova Rebels Split on Accord - Militants Contend Fight Must Go On

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Peter Finn Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, February 25, 1999; Page A17

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Feb. 24—A policy split among the Kosova insurgents became evident today as senior rebel leaders who were present at peace talks in France indicated support for the proposed Western-backed accord while a group of hard-liners here appeared to be trying to scuttle the deal.

The divergence of views raises the prospect that even if a majority of the rebel commanders endorse the peace plan before talks resume in two weeks, a minority might refuse to disarm or to abide by a cease-fire in Kosova -- a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic.

Eighteen days of negotiations between a delegation representing Kosova's ethnic Albanian majority and officials of the Belgrade government ended Tuesday with the ethnic Albanians asserting that they support the accord in principle. Still, they said they needed until March 15 to gauge reaction among the people of Kosova before signing the accord -- which would give the province wide autonomy, but not independence from Serbia.

But even if most of Kosova's ethnic Albanian civilians support the peace plan, the endorsement of the Kosova Liberation Army -- the main rebel group in the year-old war against government security forces -- will be critical to its ultimate success.

Yugoslav-Serb delegates to the talks declared on their return to Belgrade that they had scored a victory by standing fast against deployment of a NATO peacekeeping force in Kosova, which the United States and its allies say is a central component of any final agreement. Although there was a lull in the fighting today, NATO officials said they are concerned about a massing of Yugoslav troops and Serbian paramilitary police along the Kosova provincial boundary.

Consensus on the peace plan within the Kosova Liberation Army may be complicated by what ethnic Albanian sources described as a leadership "coup" conducted in the midst of the negotiations by the hard-line faction that stayed at home. This bloc claimed Monday to have named a regional rebel leader, Suleiman Salimi, as overall commander of the guerrilla organization.

The debate within the rebel force is expected to intensify when the five rebel delegates on the 16-member ethnic Albanian negotiating team return to Pristina Thursday. They were to have arrived today, but the Belgrade government threatened to deny their flight permission to land. In the end, U.S. and French officials obtained a promise from Belgrade that it would not interfere with the return of the five.

The chief opponent of the accord among the rebels is Adem Demaci, a political spokesman who opposed the negotiations and encouraged rebel delegates in France to reject the draft accord. Demaci has argued that independence is the only acceptable goal for the Kosova Albanians, and he insisted the agreement must specify that a province-wide referendum on the issue would be held after a three-year autonomy period.

He contended also that even a contingent of NATO troops in Kosova could not guarantee the safety of ethnic Albanians there and insisted that disarmament of the rebel army -- another provision of the accord -- would leave civilians in the province vulnerable to attack by government security forces.

After listening to Demaci's arguments, a number of rebel commanders phoned the chateau outside Paris where the talks were being held to voice objections to the deal. These calls had a particular impact on Hashim Thaqi, a rebel leader who headed the ethnic Albanian delegation, sources said.

Over the weekend, Thaqi attempted to pressure other delegates to oppose the deal and raised objections up to the final minutes of the talks, according to Western diplomats and ethnic Albanian sources. His efforts took them by surprise, the sources said, because his comments earlier in the talks had led the diplomats to conclude he would accept the accord.

"Thaqi became the favorite of the chateau," with both Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and chief U.S. mediator Christopher Hill repeatedly saying positive things about him, one senior U.S. official recalled. In fact, the Clinton administration does not consider Thaqi a lost cause even now and has invited him to visit Washington, several sources said.

Two other rebel leaders on the ethnic Albanian delegation suggested today that they support the deal. One, Rame Buja, said: "This is the beginning of the successful end for solving the Kosova issue. . . . I believe two weeks are enough to read, analyze and make a decision." Another rebel leader, Jakup Krasniqi, told reporters in France that "we did not come here with the illusion of independence."

"There's no question there is a split," said Hill, who witnessed some of the infighting firsthand. But he said he expects the rebels to try to paper over the dispute and predicted they would conclude that the accord enjoys wide public support in Kosova. "Everyone understands that if they're not with the Americans on this, they're in real trouble," he said.

Other ethnic Albanian leaders have said they will try to persuade the rebels to accept the deal. In France today, two such leaders -- Ibrahim Rugova, president of the Democratic League of Kosova, and Rexhep Qosja, chairman of the opposition United Democratic Movement party -- said they would join with Thaqi to form an interim government in Kosova until the accord is signed and elections are organized.

No Winners at Kosova Peace Talks, and Albright Seems to Lose Prestige

By JANE PERLEZ

PARIS -- The Clinton administration appears to have walked into the Kosova peace talks without a clear idea of what to do if the ethnic Albanians failed to follow the script that had been written for them.

In negotiations driven largely by the West's desire to stop bloodshed in Europe and especially to stop it before NATO celebrated its 50th anniversary, the administration expected the ethnic Albanians, including their guerrillas, to accept the insertion of NATO troops as their protectors in Kosova.

Then, the administration calculated, the spotlight would turn on President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia, and the threat of NATO air strikes would force him to sign an agreement giving Kosova, now a province of Serbia, three years of self-government.

But it didn't turn out that way.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, whose aides suggest she is mindful of the success of special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke in ending the war in Bosnia at Dayton, Ohio, hoped to enhance her prestige with a similar victory at the Kosova negotiations in Rambouillet, France.

She tried to embrace the ethnic Albanians, but they refused to embrace her. She left the negotiations with a messy end and, administration officials acknowledged, a significant loss of impetus in solving the conflict. If left unchecked, Kosova's war could not only yield more harrowing scenes of massacres and refugees, but mar the NATO anniversary party in Washington in April and even spread to other parts of the Balkans.

It remains uncertain whether the ethnic Albanians, who proved to be so unpredictable during the 17 days of talks, will come back as they promised in two weeks with a signed peace agreement.

The administration had counted on a successful resolution of the war involving NATO: Either the alliance would inject its ground troops as peacekeepers, or its planes and missiles would bombard and destroy the defense forces of Milosevic. Either way, it was hoped, Kosova would be a showcase of what NATO could do after the Cold War, rather than an example of what it cannot do.

The failure at Rambouillet, the town 30 miles south of Paris where the Serbs and the Albanians were cloistered, has pushed the next attempt to solve the Kosova problem much closer to the NATO anniversary. By the time the talks resume, on March 15, three former Soviet bloc nations -- Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic -- will have joined the alliance.

More importantly, the potency of the threat of NATO air strikes that were supposed to bring Milosevic to closure has, for now, been largely frittered away.

During the next three weeks, administration officials say, they will have to work overtime to rebuild a consensus on air strikes.

Some of Washington's NATO partners, notably France, the hosts of the Rambouillet conference, are much less enthusiastic about bombing Milosevic.

The biggest upset at Rambouillet was the behavior of the ethnic Albanian delegation, a 16-man group composed of known quantities, such as the elected leader and pacifist writer Ibrahim Rugova, and unknown men such as the five members of the guerrilla force known as the Kosova Liberation Army.

Hashim Thaci, a 29-year-old political science graduate and leading insurgent, stubbornly insisted that the peace document contain a clause calling for a referendum. Given that ethnic Albanians make up an estimated 90 percent of Kosova's two million people, such a referendum after three years of autonomy would almost certainly grant Kosova the independence from Serbia that the guerrillas have sought.

A referendum is anathema to Milosevic, and not favored by the West, either.

The ethnic Albanian delegates have now pledged that after selling the peace accord among the population at home, they would sign it. Administration officials said they believed the idea of peace was a popular one and that logic would prevail.

The guerrillas, Rugova's influential political party and a third Kosova movement announced on Wednesday upon returning home that they would form a joint provisional government -- apparently a step that would help sell the accord.

But it is by no means clear that all guerrilla commanders would go along. Another obstacle to a guaranteed yes is Adem Demaci, 63, self-styled political spokesman for the Kosova Liberation Army, who refused to attend the Rambouillet talks. He has strongly criticized the agreement and on Wednesday night said the announced new provisional agreement has no legitimacy.

Demaci was a political prisoner for 28 years in Yugoslavia. He is a diehard supporter of Kosova's independence but strongly opposed to any deal with the Serbs. On Monday night, when the talks were at their nadir, he received phone calls from Albright and Former Sen. Bob Dole.

Both asked him to support the agreement. According to an interview with Demaci published on Wednesday in a Kosova Albanian newspaper, he told them that the problems of Kosova could not be solved in a phone conversation.

For Albright, the failure to get an agreement was, apparently, a major disappointment. Without her presence, her supporters argue, the outcome would have been worse. She hung in for three days, trying every angle on the ethnic Albanians, including the call to Demaci.

But she walked into unknown territory. Her strategists appear to have misread the Kosova Liberation Army, a recently formed, largely mysterious group of insurgents who are barely known to diplomats. Other guerrilla groups that have been dealt with over the years, like the Viet Cong, were more of a known quantity.

And Albright did not have the built-in advantage that Holbrooke enjoyed at the talks in Dayton, Ohio, where the Americans controlled the operation.

At Rambouillet, the dynamics were diffuse. There were three negotiators -- the American ambassador to Macedonia, Christopher Hill, Austrian Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch representing the European Union, and a Russian ambassador, Boris Mayorskiy. Further, the French government controlled the ground rules.

The Americans, for example, wanted NATO military officials in uniform present at the conference as a confidence-building measure for the ethnic Albanians. The French government, according to American officials, forbade this.

At Dayton, all the leading protagonists were present and were kept sequestered until they agreed. At Rambouillet, Milosevic and Demaci were missing, and the French allowed two outside excursions. One of them was probably fatal.

First, the Serbian president, Milan Milutinovic, went back to Belgrade to talk to his mentor, Milosevic, and returned. Then, last Friday, Thaci went off to meet Demaci in Ljubljana, capital of the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia.

It was after Thaci returned to Rambouillet from seeing his mentor that his demeanor became clearer and tougher. And that was when Albright encountered him for her first serious, ultimately fruitless effort to convince him to sign an immediate peace deal.

Kosova Rebels at Odds on Self-Rule Plan

By CARLOTTA GALL

PRISHTINA, Yugoslavia -- As the ethnic Albanian delegation to the Kosova peace talks near Paris prepared to return home, its leaders announced plans to form a provisional government led by a member of the major separatist guerrilla group, the Kosova Liberation Army.

The move was clearly intended to create much-needed unity among the ethnic Albanians, who have been hampered in their bid for international recognition by their lack of a unified political leadership. It will also give the rebels their first taste of political power.

But the prospect of unity was immediately dashed by an announcement by Adem Demaci, an important political leader within the rebel army, that he would not recognize the provisional government. Demaci, a Communist-era dissident with strong support among students, is an uncompromising supporter of independence for Kosova, a province in southern Serbia.

Demaci opposed the guerrilla army's role in the peace talks and refused to attend himself. The army nevertheless sent five members, including a political representative, Hashim Thaci, who led the negotiating team.

Demaci criticized the new plan, saying neither he nor the general headquarters of the Kosova Liberation Army, a collective body that leads the guerrillas, had been consulted. In a statement, he described himself as the political leader of the rebels, and said the provisional government would have no legal legitimacy.

It is not clear how much support Demaci has among field commanders, but his fierce opposition raised alarm in Kosova that he could split the guerrilla movement. That could prove disastrous militarily for the separatists, who have been drastically outgunned in their fight against Serbian security forces that have tried to end the rebellion.

The three men who signed the plan were Thaci; Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the Democratic League of Kosova and the current political leader of the province, and Bujar Bukoshi, leader of the United Democratic Movement.

The three parties would have equal representation in the provisional government, but the rebel army is emerging as the strongest player. The prime minister of the government would be a member of the separatist army, according to a KLA statement issued in France.

The agreement comes after years of sometimes acid rivalry between the three movements. Until recently, Rugova and the army had refused to recognize each other. Much of the rivalry centered around the personalities of Rugova and Demaci. The United Democratic Movement, which split with Rugova's party last March, has also been a bitter critic of Rugova.

Nevertheless, during the 17 days of talks in France, the delegates managed to contain their differences and even won praise from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for their work.

One of the main responsibilities of the provisional government, which would rule until elections were organized, would be to control the large sums of money donated by the Albanian diaspora. Much of the money goes to support the guerrilla army, but some is intended for educational and medical programs for ethnic Albanians.

Since 1989, the Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the province's population, have been virtually denied access to the Serb-run government services, and have set up their own educational and medical networks in Pristina, the capital, and around the province.

Clinton on Kosova: A Humane Factor

By JOHN M. BRODER

ASHINGTON -- The United States has national and humanitarian interests in resolving the conflict in Kosova, President Clinton said on Wednesday in justifying the planned dispatch of American troops as part of an international peacekeeping force there.

And Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said there was no chance that peace can be achieved in Kosova without an international military presence in Serbia's rebellious province.

"Does the United States have an immediate, selfish interest in what happens on some lonely road in Kosova to some poor farm family driving a wagon with horses that are underfed because they haven't been able to get food? No," Clinton said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon. "But the United States does have a direct interest in whether there is instability in the Balkans."

He also said that the United States has a humanitarian obligation to end the conflict, which has left more than 1,000 Kosova civilians dead and as many as 400,000 homeless.

Clinton spoke at a joint news conference with Jerry Rawlings, the president of Ghana, who is in Washington on a state visit.

Albright, testifying on Kosova before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, said that 17 days of peace talks at Rambouillet, France, had failed to produce a breakthrough, but that the negotiations had not completely collapsed.

"Having returned from Rambouillet," Albright said, "I can also tell you there is zero chance that the Kosovar Albanians will sign on to this deal if the U.S. does not participate in its implementation."

The comments on Wednesday were designed to press ethnic Albanians in Kosova to approve a tentative peace settlement with Serbia, from which they are seeking autonomy and eventual independence. The United States and its European allies hope to use agreement by the Kosova Albanians to bring pressure on Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president, to accept an international military presence on Serbian soil.

If both sides agree to the pact negotiated over the past two weeks, 28,000 NATO peacekeepers would be interposed between Serbian forces and the Kosova rebels. The international force would include 4,000 Americans under current plans.

The Rambouillet talks broke up on Tuesday to allow time for the ethnic Albanian leaders at the negotiations to return to Kosova to consult with their constituents. The talks are to resume on March 15.

But Western officials fear that Milosevic will use the intervening days to step up attacks against the Kosova Liberation Army, the separatist rebel group, and to prepare a larger military offensive with the approach of warmer weather.

Albright warned Milosevic against any such action, telling him that a spring offensive would be a "grave mistake" and that NATO would not hesitate to respond with force. In the current crisis, however, it has so far been cautious about entering the conflict.

Clinton said that he allowed two deadlines to pass in the Kosova talks because the parties were making progress. Just last Friday, the president said it would be a mistake to extend the deadline, then set for Saturday and later moved to Tuesday, and warned Milosevic that NATO airstrikes were inevitable and imminent if he did not accede to Western terms for a settlement.

On Wednesday, however, Clinton said he was willing to let the deadlines slip because both sides wanted more time.

"First of all," Clinton said, "what they did in the peace talks was to reach an agreement that they had gone as far as they could, but they did not want to give up and disintegrate into violence. So when we agreed to extend, we were basically agreeing to what both parties wished to do."

The president said that Milosevic continues to oppose a NATO peacekeeping force in Kosova, on the ground that it violates Serbian sovereignty. But Clinton said that without such a force, there is no way to keep the warring parties from each other's throats.

U.S. Force Ready For Kosova When Called - General

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff said Thursday the U.S. military would be able to send a ground force to Kosova as soon as it was called.

Asked at a news conference in Bangkok whether the United States would be able to commit such a force at short notice, General Henry Shelton replied:

``Yes we would be as a matter of fact. If required to provide a ground force, if the president commits us to doing that, then we in fact would look at a unit for example that has just completed rather exhaustive training.

``Granted that unit... will be trained as a disciplined war fighting force, which is what we want to send in until it gets sorted out. But the leadership also has been training in peacekeeping and peace enforcement.''

As part of a peace agreement Washington is pushing, the United States could contribute 4,000 of an estimated 28,000 NATO-led troops who would oversee the peace in the southern Serbian province.

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