Notorious Serb Criminal Arkan Back in Business

Reuters - A notorious Serbian paramilitary leader, whose men took part in some of the worst massacres in recent Balkan conflicts, announced Thursday that he was back in business as a soldier.

Zeljko Raznjatovic, known as Arkan, told a local Serbian television station that he had reactivated his Serbian Volunteer Guard after a large number of people had volunteered to fight in the disputed province of Kosovo.

The report was picked up by Belgrade-based independent Radio B92, as NATO launched another wave of punitive airstrikes to force Belgrade into accepting a peace deal on Kosovo.

"We are all as one in the defense of (Kosovo). It will be an honor for us," Arkan said. The guard would be put at the disposal of the Yugoslav army and the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the radio added.

Arkan's troops took part in the brutal three-month siege of the Croatian city of Vukovar in 1991 and helped the Bosnian Serbs overrun northern and eastern Bosnia a year later, where he was one of the pioneers of "ethnic cleansing" of ethnic minorities.

After the Bosnian war ended in 1995, Arkan turned to business and now owns a soccer club in Belgrade. But his name still strikes fear into the heart of many in the Balkans.

B92 was closed down by the Belgrade authorities earlier this week, but continues to broadcast by satellite and over the Internet.

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 NATO Launches New Attacks on Yugoslavia

AP - NATO pounded Yugoslavia for a second night Thursday, following through on a pledge to systematically destroy President Slobodan Milosevic's military forces unless he accepts peace in Kosovo. Bombs rained down on Kosovo's capital of Pristina shortly after dark. The sky lit up with bright flashes when three heavy blasts were heard from the direction of an army base next to the airport. Explosions were also heard north of Belgrade, in northern Kosovo, and in Serbia and Montenegro, the two republics that make up Yugoslavia. "We're going to systematically and progressively attack, disrupt, degrade, devastate and ultimately -- unless President Milosevic complies with the demands of the international community _ we're going to destroy these forces and their facilities and support," said U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, supreme commander of allied forces in Europe. But there was no hint the assault was causing Milosevic to rethink his refusal to end his offensive against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo or accept a plan calling for 28,000 NATO troops to enforce the peace. His aides scorned the airstrikes as "a crime against the people" of Yugoslavia, his troops reportedly kept burning villages and kidnapping people in Kosovo and Serbia ordered all foreign reporters to leave. Most journalists heeded the warning. Yugoslavia also announced it was cutting diplomatic ties with United States, Britain, France and Germany for participating in the airstrikes, Serbian TV reported. But Britain and the United States said they had received no formal notice of ties being broken. France would nether confirm nor deny the report and Germany had no immediate comment. More than 2,000 people have been killed and at least 400,000 forced to flee their homes in a year of fighting between Yugoslav troops and ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo, a province in Serbia. The ethnic Albanians have already signed the U.S.-backed peace plan. A devastating first round of airstrikes Wednesday reportedly killed at least 11 people, injured dozens and delivered serious blows to Yugoslavia's military infrastructure. Air raid sirens sounded throughout Yugoslavia again Thursday after dozens of NATO warplanes took off from bases in Italy and four warships in the Adriatic Sea launched Tomahawk cruise missiles on the second day of the offensive. NATO commanders say the barrage will go on until Milosevic capitulates -- and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said diplomatic channels were always open. "He knows how to get in touch with us," she said in Washington. Two missiles struck Thursday near the central Serbian city of Nis. The official Tanjug news agency reported two explosions in the center of the northern Kosovo town of Kosovska Mitrovica and local media in Belgrade reported several explosions just north of the capital. Six locations -- including army bases, an airport, and radar facilities -- were hit in Montenegro. The Yugoslav leadership assailed the attacks by the 19-nation NATO alliance as "a grave crime against the people of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." "This will never be forgotten and the aggressors will never be forgiven," Ivica Dacic, a spokesman for Milosevic's Serbian Socialist Party, said in Belgrade. NATO began the attack Wednesday night with the launch of cruise missiles from American B-52s in the air and ships in the Adriatic, many of them aimed at Yugoslavia's air defense system. Other targets, NATO sources said, included ammunition dumps, radar installations, artillery, fiber optic cables and command and control centers. The Yugoslav army acknowledged that over 50 targets were hit. Javier Solana, NATO's secretary-general, said from alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, that initial reports indicated the first phase was a success. The Serbian health minister, Dr. Leposava Milecevic, told CNN that 10 civilians and one soldier were killed in the Wednesday night attack and 60 people were wounded. An official army statement listed 10 people dead and 38 wounded, with one soldier missing. Clark said it was impossible to know precisely what had happened on the ground in target areas, saying NATO forces were taking "every possible measure" to minimize the threat of civilian casualties. He said allied aircraft "destroyed" three Yugoslav jet fighters in the first round of air combat -- two shot down by U.S. F-16s and the other by a Dutch F-16. Even before the attack Thursday, the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade was tense, with schools, airports and most shops were closed. In a sign of rising hostility toward Westerners, the Beta news agency in Belgrade reported that assailants smashed windows at the cultural centers of France, Germany and the United States. Many European and Asian leaders backed the airstrikes, but China and Russia demanded an immediate end to the allied assault. In Kosovo, where the exodus of journalists made it virtually impossible to verify claims, there were reports of rising violence, much of it targeting civilians. The state news agency Tanjug reported that ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army rebels "encouraged and supported by last night's criminal activities" attacked government forces in several areas. However, rebel commander Ramush Hajredinaj told The Associated Press by telephone that Serb police and Yugoslav soldiers near the town of Vucitirn were pushing civilians from village to village. He also said Serbs had blocked roads in the northern Drenica area, trapping civilians in villages there. He said Serbs were burning houses in the southern city of Pec and kidnapping people. "The situation is very catastrophic ... no one can go inside, no aid groups," he said. Anti-NATO sentiment erupted Thursday in neighboring Macedonia, where more than 2,000 demonstrators threw stones, broke windows and hurled gasoline bombs at the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Skopje. Several cars were burned as protesters chanting "NATO out of Macedonia" tried to storm the building. Riot police drove them off with tear gas.

Copyright 1999& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Clinton Pleased No NATO Planes Lost

UPI - President Clinton is pleased the first wave of NATO air attacks against Yugoslav military targets claimed no U. S. lives or warplanes, a spokesman said.

That word came this morning from White House press secretary Joe Lockhart who said Clinton was informed by his national security adviser of the allied ``all clear call'' after 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.

``The president was very pleased with that news,'' Lockhart said as Clinton was receiving a fuller update from Sandy Berger this morning and a CBS poll conducted overnight showed 52 percent of those surveyed felt the Kosovo operation was not worth American lives.

The president will meet at midday with his full defense and national security team in the Oval Office.

The top aides were expected to report on the damage done to the military infrastructure of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in the punishing first round of airstrikes, dubbed Operation Allied Force, that included the debut of the B-2 stealth bomber and cruise missiles launched from B-52 bombers, two U.S. warships and a pair of American and British submarines.

Defense Secretary William Cohen, appearing on network television, said he also was ``satisfied our mission's been carried out as planned'' over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

And both officials warned again that if Milosevic digs in ``he will continue to see his war machine degraded.''

``That is our objective and we are determined to carry out our objective,'' Cohen said.

Lockhart added: ``He knows what he needs to do, which is stop the offensive actions against the Kosovar Albanians and sign on to a durable political settlement....It's now up to him to decide.''

Cohen also denied Yugoslav reports that NATO aircraft have been shot down.

``That is categorically false,'' the defense secretary said. ``There has been no NATO aircraft lost.'' Pentagon officials say at least three Serb MiG aircraft had been downed.

Lockhart said the mission would continue until officials felt they had curbed Milosevic's ability to harm the majority Kosovar Albanians.

Cohen wouldn't put a timeframe on the effort, saying only that it will ``take more than one day.'' _-

Copyright 1999 by United Press International.

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Congress offers its ideas on Kosova policy

AllPolitics - As NATO began its second round of airstrikes against Serbian military targets in Kosovo, members of Congress Thursday began offering their ideas on what the U.S. should do next in the troubled region.

Among the proposals being advocated by some members of the Senate are allocating funds to help arm the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and making the removal of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic official U.S. policy.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut) advocated arming the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo so they can defend themselves against the Serbian armed forces. They introduced a bill Thursday that would provide $25 million to the ethnic Albanians to arm themselves.

"Clearly one of the steps that should have been taken a couple of months of ago is to arm the Kosovars so they can defend themselves," McConnell told CNN.

McConnell said the airstrikes are unlikely to end the conflict. It will only end when the two sides are in rough parity militarily, he said.

"For a mere $25 million, which is probably less than we spent on the first night of bombing, we could provide up to 18 months of adequate military arms and equipment for the Kosovars to keep themselves from being slaughtered if in fact the ground assault by the Serbians continues," McConnell said.

Lieberman said Milosevic can either sign a peace agreement and NATO could help disarm the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, or he can continue to resist. "If he chooses the second he must realize that rather than disarming the Kosovars, we will train and equip them so that they can carry on their fight," Lieberman said.

But the ethnic Albanians are fighting for an independent Kosovo, which is at odds with the Clinton Administration's position that Kosovo should remain a part of Yugoslavia but with autonomy. McConnell broached the idea of arming the Kosovars with President Clinton earlier this week.

"I must say in response to this there was stunned silence, so this is clearly not administration policy at this time," McConnell said.

Sen. John Warner (R-Virginia), head of the Senate Armed Services Commission, raised another point, saying arming the Kosovars could upset Russia, a traditional ally of the Serbs. Russia could play a role in bringing the Serbs back to peace talks but if the U.S. arms the Kosovars, it could bring another result, he said.

"In my judgment, such statements as arming the Kosovars, would give the Russians a ground to possibly arm their brother Slavs and that would be absolutely destructive," he said.

Helms wants Milosevic out

Meanwhile, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina), head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered another bill Thursday to authorize $100 million to support democratic movements inside Kosovo. He also called for U.S. policy to change to support the removal of Milosevic.

"As for Mr. Milosevic's future, I don't care one way or the other if he lives out his days in sunny Cyprus or if he will agree to step aside and make way for democracy in Serbia, the important thing is that he be removed from power, whether voluntarily or not, and now," Helms said.

Helms' bill also calls for increased humanitarian aid to Kosovo, strengthened sanctions on Yugoslavia and an increase in U.S.-sponsored broadcasts like Radio Free Europe to undermine the state-controlled media in Yugoslavia.

Some express skepticism over policy

Other congressional reaction to the airstrikes in Kosovo centered on reservations about the mission coupled with support for the U.S. military forces in the Balkans.

Most lawmakers expressed concern about when the strikes will end, as no timetable has been set forth by NATO and the Yugoslav government has been unyielding so far.

Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Oklahoma), a member of the House Republican leadership, said lawmakers of both parties "are quite concerned not knowing when we're going to get out of there, how we're going to get out of there. "

Those sentiments were echoed by Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), who is among the Republicans exploring a 2000 presidential bid.

"I obviously and others have questions about the overall strategy: What the end game is, what we expect to achieve, what the goals are," he said. "But right now, Americans are in harm's way. I think that we should support the president."

Clinton Administration officials told CNN they were generally satisfied with public and political reaction so far, although they acknowledged persistent questions from Congress about an endgame for the U.S.-led mission.

House Armed Services Chairman Floyd Spence (R-South Carolina) said he still had "deep reservations about the direction of our policy in Kosovo."

Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-Nebraska) said it was important to support the troops "because they're going to be there a long time. There is no exit strategy from this unhappy quagmire."

Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole, who has served Clinton as an envoy in the Yugoslav crisis, also stressed that the United States and NATO must prepare for a long campaign.

If Yugoslavia refuses to yield, Dole told ABC News via the telephone, "I think we continue, we make it more intense," and he added that ground forces "have to be somewhere on the table" if airstrikes don't work.

Democrats were supportive of the president's policy. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) said Milosevic had given NATO and the U.S. no other choice.

"Diplomacy has been exhausted ... Continued instability in the Balkans threatens important U.S. national interests," Daschle said.

House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Missouri) agreed: "NATO had no choice but to deter this aggression and prevent the slaughter of innocent civilians."

Congress OKs resolutions supporting troops

Both chambers of Congress approved resolutions offering support for the troops. The House of Representatives approved 424-1 Wednesday a resolution expressing support for U.S. troops while the Senate approved a resolution by voice vote late Wednesday.

"We're there," House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) told the House late Wednesday in advance of its vote supporting U.S. troops. "We can debate the reasons why we're there. ... But we are there."

The lone dissenter in the House was Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California). She has voted against U.S. overseas military initiatives in the past and opposed a December 1998 resolution backing U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi also issued a statement that supported the U.S. armed forces participating in the NATO mission.

"Whatever our reservations about the president's actions in the Balkans, let no one doubt that the Congress and the American people stand united behind our men and women who are bravely heeding the call of duty there," Lott said.

While Republicans are more skeptical of the adminstration's plan, even the GOP is split. Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), himself of Serbian descent, criticized the mission, saying Milosevic was a creation of our own government. He criticized the lack of an exit strategy and said the mission was costing the U. S. financially.

"This is costing us money, and the money to pay for this war is coming out of our Social Security surplus, so this is a big deal. This is not just a little sidelight that we're involved with today in this country," Voinovich said Wednesday on CNN's "Early Edition."

But another Republican senator was more supportive of the airstrikes.

"The world must understand that the responsibility for these military strikes lies not with the United States or its allies, but at the doorstep of Slobodan Milosevic.... Our diplomats, together with those of our British, French and German allies, have gone the extra mile to give Serbia the opportunity for peace. President Milosevic has chosen military confrontation instead," said Sen. John Chafee (R-Rhode Island), senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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NATO Resolved, Clinton 'Pleased'

UPI - The day after punishing airstrikes were launched against Serb military targets in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, NATO is taking stock of its unprecedented attack against a sovereign state amid notable silence from the only man who can halt the military outcome of centuries-old ethnic conflict, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

At a news conference in Brussels today, NATO Supreme Commander U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark said the airstrikes are designed to ``systematically and progressively attack, disrupt, degrade, devastate and ultimately, unless Milosevic complies with the demands of the international community, we're going to destroy (Milosevic's) forces and their facilities and support.''

At the same briefing, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said all NATO planes involved in Wednesday's strikes _ ``nearly 400 aircraft'' _ had returned safely to base. One U.S. F-15 had landed in Sarajevo because of a ``routine'' engine problem. There was ``not a lot of air defense fire,'' and the main opposition to the NATO mission came from Yugoslav fighter aircraft.

Clark confirmed that ``at least'' two modern Yugoslav MiGs were destroyed in aerial combat, provisionally backing the account that two were downed by U.S. F-15s and one by a Dutch F-16.

More than 40 targets were struck ``throughout the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,'' said Clark: air defense systems, command and control installations, facilities for the Yugoslav military police and military, and an aircraft repair facility.

Clark and Solana supplied few other details of the operation and said it could be ``several days'' before battle damage assessment was completed.

In Washington, a White House spokesman said President Clinton is pleased the first wave of airstrikes claimed no U.S. lives or warplanes.

Press secretary Joe Lockhart said Clinton was informed by his national security adviser of the allied ``all clear call'' after 10:30 p.m. EST Wednesday.

``The president was very pleased with that news,'' Lockhart said as Clinton was receiving a fuller update from Sandy Berger this morning and a CBS poll conducted overnight showed 52 percent of those surveyed felt the Kosovo operation was not worth American lives.

European political leaders meanwhile, attending a previously scheduled European Union meeting in Berlin, issued a statement today asserting Europe's ``moral obligation'' to halt indiscriminate violence against the people of Kosovo.

Eleven of the 15 EU states are members of NATO.

For his part, French President Jacques Chirac said, ``Milosevic should take note that he can stop the bombing, if he complies....And he should be aware that what's happened is a consequence of the actions of Yugoslavia.''

Meanwhile, the German government said it had ``no other choice'' but to support the bombing and has sent Tornado aircraft to the Adriatic Sea as part of the NATO force of 200 combat aircraft.

However, neutral Austria was not entirely supportive of the airstrikes. In a statement, Austria said it was closing its airspace to NATO planes because there was no U.N. mandate for the military action.

Late Wednesday night, a U.N. Security Council closed-door meeting on Kosovo ended with an open session, with the five permanent members of the council showing a distinct split between NATO and non-NATO members.

The United States, Britain and France reiterated NATO's rationale for the operation, while Russia and China stood in marked opposition.

Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov, echoing President Boris Yeltsin's Wednesday condemnation of the bombardment, was the most vehemently opposed, saying, Moscow was ``outraged'' by the assault. Russia, which shares a common Slavic heritage and Eastern Orthodox religious ties with Yugoslavia, has been straddling it's role as Milosevic's only ally and it's position in the six-nation Balkans Contact Group in the year-long diplomatic showdown over Kosovo. _-

Copyright 1999 by United Press International.

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Focus of Allied Bombing Shifting to Serb Violence in Kosova

AP - On the second night of U.S.-led NATO air attacks, American officials said the focus of the bombardment on Yugoslavia was shifting to the large support structure for Serb army and special police forces whose violence against Kosovar Albanians is at the heart of the conflict. About 20 percent of NATO's first round of attacks Wednesday were against Serb forces involved in the fighting in Kosovo, and that is increasing as the air campaign unfolds, said Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon. As he spoke Thursday, the assault led by American warplanes taking off from bases in Italy and cruise missile-launching Navy ships in the Adriatic Sea resumed after a daytime lull. Alliance officials said the air campaign would continue targeting Yugoslavia's formidable air defense network as well as the Serb forces. "They will focus more and more on achieving our primary goal, which is to reduce the ability of the Yugoslav forces to target or repress the Kosovar Albanians," Bacon said. Defense Secretary William Cohen pronounced himself satisfied with Wednesday night's opening volley of airstrikes, which included the first-ever use of the Air Force B-2 stealth bomber flying round-trip from Missouri. More B-2s armed with one-ton satellite-guided bombs were to join Thursday night's attacks, although B-52 bombers -- which led the opening assault -- were not involved, officials said. At the White House, President Clinton told reporters he believed NATO's goal of enabling the Kosovar Albanians to protect themselves could be achieved without sending in allied ground forces. The president's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, told reporters the Serb offensive in Kosovo had "increased somewhat" and included some shelling by Serb army forces into neighboring Albania to the south. "There have been some further burnings of (Kosovo) villages, further sweep operations, some shelling into Albania," Berger said. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, meanwhile, told a news conference that there was no indication that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was ready to talk peace. She said "diplomatic channels remain open," though the government in Belgrade announced later that it was cutting diplomatic ties with the United States as well as Britain, France and Germany. On Capitol Hill, Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., introduced legislation to earmark $25 million to arm the Kosovars to defend themselves against the Serbs. That would be enough to allow them to arm 10 battalions of 1,000 soldiers each with machine guns, grenade launchers, rifles and other equipment, for up to 18 months, McConnell said.

Defense and State Department officials briefed members of the Senate, and afterward Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said the officials were asked how long NATO could stick together and keep up the military campaign if Milosevic simply tried to outlast it. "Frankly, we did not get satisfactory answers on how long it would take," said Bennett. Other senators in the closed-door briefing said it was clear the first round of allied attacks was highly successful. In a pointed statement of what may lie ahead for Yugoslavia, U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, the top commander of NATO forces, said the allied air campaign would continue as long as necessary to stop Serb aggression. "We're going to systematically and progressively attack, disrupt, degrade, devastate and ultimately, unless President Milosevic complies with the demands of the international community, we're going to destroy his forces," Clark told a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. "In that respect, the operation will be just as long and difficult as President Milosevic requires it to be." Bacon also said NATO commanders had moved some armored ground forces in Macedonia close to the Kosovo border as a precaution against the possibility of Serb army retaliatory attacks. About 7,800 NATO soldiers were sent to Macedonia earlier this month as the vanguard of a larger allied force that would have implemented a Kosovo peace agreement. It was Milosevic's refusal that led NATO to launch its airstrikes. Commanders of NATO-led peacekeeping troops in neighboring Bosnia also have taken additional defensive measures in the past few days out of concern for potential retaliation by Bosnian Serbs, Bacon said. Clark said it was too early to reveal any details of the damage inflicted from the opening round of attacks, except to confirm that at least three Yugoslav fighter jets were shot down and some were destroyed on airfields. Bacon said that about 150 allied air missions were flown on Wednesday -- both strike and support flights by 11 NATO member countries. Clark said about 40 targets were struck throughout Yugoslavia in the opening strikes and that the Yugoslavs used few if any of their surface-to-air missiles in defense.

Copyright 1999& The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Misgivings in Germany about Helping NATO Attack Yugoslavia

AP - German politicians largely rallied behind their military Thursday after it joined NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia, but several voiced misgivings about taking part in Germany's first attack on a sovereign country since World War II. German sensitivity was heightened by the fact that the bombs and missiles hit a region where memories of the wartime Nazi occupation remain alive. German Tornado warplanes were in action Wednesday night in the allied campaign, but the government refused to say whether they actually fired at Yugoslav targets. Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping appealed to the nation to support its troops, saying the need to pressure Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to stop the war in Kosovo and prevent "a humanitarian catastrophe" outweighed the burden of the "twisted face" of Germany's past. "Our goal remains to end the tragedy happening there," Scharping told parliament in Bonn. But the Greens, the junior partner in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's center-left coalition, struggled with their pacifist past. Angelika Beer, a Greens spokeswoman on defense affairs, said some of the party's lawmakers had reservations about Germany's involvement but the majority backed Schroeder. "I hope we can say later that it was right to give our support," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. A left-wing Greens lawmaker, Christian Stroebele, voiced shame that Germany was "dropping bombs on Belgrade." Germany has sent peacekeepers to participate in U.N. missions in Bosnia and Somalia, and it has 2,800 ground troops deployed in Macedonia to monitor a hoped-for peace deal on Kosovo. But the deployment of the Tornados, used to track and knock out enemy anti-aircraft radars, is the furthest it has gone in dropping its reluctance to engage in a military campaign. Scharping refused to specify at a news conference whether the German warplanes fired missiles, saying only: "Their capability is being used." The conservative opposition staunchly backed the government's stand, saying German troops were "in the service of a good thing." "We have no alternative if we take our responsibility for peace, freedom and human rights seriously," said Wolfgang Schaeuble, chairman of the main opposition Christian Democrats. The former East German communists denounced participation in the airstrikes, saying it breached Germany's self-imposed ban on a "war of aggression" spelled out in the postwar constitution. But the ex-communists' emergency motion aimed at pulling Germany out of the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia was rejected by the Constitutional Court on Thursday night. Parliament formally approved German participation last fall.

Copyright 1999& The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

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Clinton Warns Serbs to Choose Path of Peace

Reuters - President Clinton warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday that he must "choose peace" or else NATO will pound the Serb military down to size.

"He must either choose peace or we will limit his ability to make war," Clinton told reporters shortly before NATO launched a second wave of air strikes against Yugoslavia.

Clinton and his top aides outlined stark options for Milosevic as they insisted NATO air power would diminish Serbia's military capability with no need for allied ground forces.

Defense Secretary William Cohen said the bombing campaign would intensify absent a move toward peace by Milosevic. Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said NATO's second wave "will be another substantive strike, it will be severe."

NATO forces were focusing the second wave on Serb forces used to target Kosovo Albanians. They were attempting to "reduce the ability of the Yugoslav forces to target or repress the Kosovar Albanians," Bacon said.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said "diplomatic channels remain open" for Milosevic and the peace accord negotiated in France, signed by the ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo but rejected by the Serbs, was still on the table.

"There is no indication that there is any change at all in Milosevic's position," she said at the State Department. "He knows how to get in touch with us."

Underscoring the urgency of NATO's Operation Allied Force, White House National Security Adviser Sandy Berger said Serb forces had escalated their offensive against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and shelled neighboring Albania.

"There have been some further burning of villages, further sweep operations, some shelling into Albania. And it's obviously very disturbing to us," Berger said.

Berger said he did not believe Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema's appeal for a fresh diplomatic initiative suggested cracks in the NATO alliance.

"I believe that there is clarity and solidarity about this mission," he said.

The air strikes were ordered after Milosevic refused to sign the Paris peace deal. Milosevic then massed 40,000 troops in and around Kosovo and began a bloody campaign to break the backs of the rebels.

Clinton said even the Russians, who are deeply upset about the NATO attacks, had said the Paris deal was fair. "Only Mr. Milosevic and the Serbs declined to deal with the evident responsibility they have to choose the path of peace instead of the path of aggression and war," he said.

Clinton, somber and weary-looking, met his senior foreign policy aides in the Oval Office for a review of the first day of bombing and to lay further plans for preventing a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and a wider war in the Balkans.

Asked if he was concerned that the American people still had questions about the operation, Clinton said he believed many people had not thought about the situation in Kosovo until the last two days and believed a majority will ultimately support him.

"I also believe very strongly that it is my responsibility to make this judgment based on what I think is the long-term interests of the American people," he said.

He later spoke by phone to NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana and NATO Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark. The White House said he sent letters Wednesday explaining U.S. rationale for the NATO strikes to various countries including China, Japan, Sweden and Ukraine.

The Clinton administration faced continuing calls from some members of Congress to define how the United States gets out of the conflict. The question they posed is what happens if Milosevic refuses to return to the peace table but instead waits out the air campaign and then continues his offensive against Kosovo rebels. Congress is concerned that U.S. troops would be sent in. Some said Milosevic himself should be toppled.

"There's no exit strategy that's in existence," Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich, a Serb-American opposed to the strikes, told CNN. Clinton brushed aside an exit strategy question.

"The exit strategy is what it always is in a military operation. It's when the mission is completed," he said.

Clinton said he believed air power alone can "create a situation in which we have limited their ability to make war" and increase the Kosovo Albanians' ability to protect themselves.

Cohen told Reuters TV the United States had no intention of introducing ground troops into a military campaign. "We have no plans to introduce our forces into a hostile environment," he said.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

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Albania Closes Tirana Airport after NATO Strikes

Reuters - Albania shut down its international airport for an indefinite period on Thursday following NATO air strikes in neighbouring Yugoslavia.

The closing of Rinas airport came after the cancellation of flights to the capital Tirana by Swissair (SWSZn.S) and Slovenia's Adria Airways on Wednesday and Austrian Airlines (AUAV.VI) on Thursday.

"After consultation with the Eurotransport organisation in Brussels, the Transport Ministry decided to close indefinitely Albania's only international airport," a ministry spokesman said.

Albanian news agency ATA said the three airlines had also cancelled flights to Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia, and Skopje in Macedonia.

Ferries to Italy were still in operation.

NATO bombed military targets in Yugoslavia on Wednesday evening, and U.S. President Bill Clinton said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic "must choose" peace or NATO would continue air strikes.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.

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NATO Sources Deny Readying for Land Operations

Reuters - NATO sources on Thursday denied Russian reports that allied forces were readying a land offensive in Yugoslavia.

"That's totally wrong. NATO has no political authorisation to do anything of the kind," a NATO military source said.

He was reacting to a charge by Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev, who said Russia had intelligence showing NATO was preparing for a ground operation in Yugoslavia, according to Russian news agencies.

They quoted him as saying some 22,000 NATO ground troops were being readied but that Yugoslavia stood ready to repel them.

NATO leaders have consistently said they have no plans to switch from air strikes to a ground offensive. The alliance has some 12,000 troops in Macedonia on the southern border of Yugoslavia to form the vanguard of a peacekeeping mission for Kosovo, but only with Belgrade's formal agreement.

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U.S. Embassy attacked

CNN - Hundreds of demonstrators sympathetic to Yugoslavia damaged cars, and others threw firebombs at the U.S. Embassy in Skopje on Thursday, hours after the prime minister expressed concern over rising anti-NATO sentiment in Macedonia.

Macedonia borders Yugoslavia, where NATO has been conducting airstrikes to try to force President Slobodan Milosevic to make peace with ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo province.

About 25 percent of the people in Macedonia are ethnic Albanians, and about 2 percent are ethnic Serbs. There have been fears that the armed conflict in Kosovo could spill over the border.

Macedonia has supported the NATO operation, but nationalists and ethnic Serbs in the former Yugoslav republic, which became independent in 1993, are anti-Albanian and sympathetic to Yugoslavia. Many Macedonians also dislike the growing NATO presence in the country.

More than 2,000 demonstrators chanting "NATO out of Macedonia" threw stones, broke windows and hurled gasoline bombs at the U.S. Embassy. Three cars were burned as protesters tried to storm the building.

The protesters dispersed after riot police arrived and a fire truck extinguished the blaze.

Earlier, demonstrators marched to a hotel housing international officials who were monitoring peace in Kosovo until they had to leave last week.

About 200 police were called out to handle the ethnically mixed crowd, which started to smash vehicles outside the hotel. Waving flags of Yugoslavia and pre-independence Macedonia, the demonstrators damaged a number of vehicles before heading to the U.S. Embassy.

Refugees pouring in

Macedonian officials fear an influx of refugees from the Kosovo conflict will inflame tensions and overburden resources. The three border posts with Yugoslavia were open Thursday, but did little business.

Macedonia says it already has 20,000 refugees from Kosovo and can't handle any more.

"The two biggest problems the country is facing at the moment are the inflow of refugees from Kosovo and the emergence of anti-NATO and anti-American feelings among the Macedonian public," said Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski.

He called for urgent aid from the United States and the European Union to cope with the refugees.

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Clinton Cautions Russia on Arms Embargo Against

XINHUA - President Bill Clinton Thursday cautioned Russia not to lift the U.N. arms embargo against Yugoslavia while his aides were busy repairing a major rift with Moscow over NATO's bombing of Belgrade.

"I think that would be a terrible mistake," Clinton told reporters in the White House Oval Office as he met with his foreign policy team on the bombing of the defiant nation and the potential fallout.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin, having failed to persuade Clinton not to go through with the assault on Yugoslavia, suspended Russian cooperation with NATO Wednesday and recalled his chief military representative to the alliance in protest.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov hinted that his government may try to break the U.N. embargo on arms deliveries to the Serbs.

Clinton said the Serbs "have quite a lot of arms on their own. They made a lot of arms in the former Yugoslavia."

"I have no intention of lifting any of the arms embargo on Serbia. I think that would be a terrible mistake," he said.

The Clinton administration is checking reports the Russians were already providing Belgrade with weapons to resist the NATO cruise missile and bombing attack.

A senior U.S. official said that if Russia lifts arms embargo, the United States will probably take up the issue at the United Nations.

Facing the drastic cooling down of relationship with Russia, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright acknowledged that "Russia does not agree with our decision to launch military strikes."

But she said in a conciliatory tone that Russian leaders deserve credit for the efforts they made to persuade Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to accept the peace accords.

"We are and will remain in close touch," Albright said. "Both sides recognize the importance of our relationship and the need to continue to work together on many shared concerns."

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NATO Hits Serbia Again, Belgrade Cuts Ties

Reuters - NATO launched a second night of air raids on Yugoslavia Thursday and U.S. President Bill Clinton said the alliance would continue bombing until Belgrade bowed to the West's demands for peace in Kosovo.

As the onslaught resumed, Yugoslavia said it was breaking off diplomatic relations with the United States, France, Germany and Britain. Russia fiercely condemned the raids, opening its deepest rift with the West since the Cold War.

Loud blasts were heard at about 1900 GMT (2 p.m. EST) outside Kosovo's capital Pristina, soon after the sounds of high-flying planes and anti-aircraft fire, and all power in the town was cut.

There were also big explosions near the Yugoslav capital Belgrade, 200 miles to the north. Witnesses said missiles and warplanes pounded an army barracks, an airport and communications and air defense centers around Serbia.

Among targets reported hit were a large Yugoslav army barracks at Urosevac in Kosovo, a factory producing military supplies in the central Serbian town of Trstenik, an airport at Nis in southern Serbia and military bases in Montenegro.

U.S. forces said they had fired 20 Tomahawk cruise missiles from warships in the Adriatic and that NATO warplanes had taken off from land bases soon after.

There was no sign of Belgrade wavering in its refusal to accept a Western plan for the war-torn Serbian province of Kosovo which would mean allowing NATO troops on its soil.

Yugoslav Deputy prime Minister Vuk Draskovic said NATO's bombardments had destroyed the peace plan but that Belgrade remained ready to accept autonomy for the Serbian province.

Clinton said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic "must either choose peace or we will limit his ability to make war," adding that the aim was to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and a wider war in the Balkans.

There was even tougher talk from NATO Supreme Commander General Wesley Clark, who threatened at a news conference in Brussels to destroy the Yugoslav army and warned Milosevic there was "no sanctuary" for himself or his military leaders.

In matching rhetoric from Belgrade, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj called on Serbs around the world to "strike against American interests as best they can."

"Each American, British, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch soldier, wherever he is encountered, is an enemy of the Serbian people and should be destroyed," said Seselj, president of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party.

Three leading Yugoslav footballers asked compatriots working for soccer clubs in NATO states to boycott their sides for the duration of the alliance attacks.

Yugoslavia said 40 targets had been hit in NATO's first strikes Wednesday night and at least 10 people had been killed, but said that damage to installations was minimal.

NATO chiefs in Brussels said Serbian security forces were still attacking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo Thursday, but Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema declared that the initial attacks had stopped the Serbian offensive.

In a hint of differences in the international alliance, he said at a European Union summit in Berlin that the time for a new diplomatic initiative was approaching and praised a Russian call for a meeting of the big power Contact Group on the Balkans.

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said more assaults were planned but added that "we are talking about days, not months."

The NATO raids -- the first against a sovereign country in the 50-year history of the alliance -- were launched in spite of protests from Russia and China at the U.N. Security Council.

Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic, expelled journalists of foreign media from countries which had taken part in NATO's attacks or lent their territory to support them.

In Kosovo itself, ethnic Albanian cafes, stores and a private medical clinic appeared to have been attacked with grenades or bombs during the night. Ethnic Albanian sources reported arson attacks around the province and said a man was shot dead by marauding civilians in Djakovica in the south.

Ethnic Albanians said heavy fighting was raging between Albanians and Serbs Thursday around Vucitrn in central Kosovo, on the road between Glogovac and Srbica west of Pristina and around the strategic town of Podujevo, to the north.

Police fired tear gas and chased hundreds of anti-NATO protesters through the center of the Macedonian capital Skopje after a crowd attacked the U.S., German and British embassies and other sites to protest against the NATO attacks.

Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski pleaded for urgent help from the West to deal with some 20,000 ethnic Albanian refugees who had poured in from Kosovo.

Refugees also fled into Albania after Serbian forces torched a village in neighboring Kosovo. Albanian officials said Serbian forces had shelled villages in northeastern Albania.

Russia accused Washington of seeking world domination and ruled out attending NATO's anniversary summit next month.

Protesters yelling "fascists" pelted the U.S. embassy in Moscow with ink, burned the stars and stripes flag and threw beer bottles through windows.

"We are being told that NATO bombs Yugoslavia to defend democratic ideals and uphold the creation of united and stable Europe," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said. "What kind of ideals and values need to be imposed by missiles and bombs?"

Russia introduced a resolution to the U.N. Security Council Thursday calling for the air raids to be halted, but the draft was almost certain to be defeated.

President Boris Yeltsin sent a message of solidarity to Milosevic but ruled out taking "extreme measures."

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News Teams Leave Yugoslavia, Talk of Harassment

Reuters - Journalists from top news organizations from the United States, which has a leading role in NATO air strikes against Serb targets, were among Western reporters expelled from Yugoslavia Thursday.

Yugoslavia said it expelled reporters from the United States, France, Germany and Britain because they spurred on the NATO alliance to attack the country and misled world opinion.

Several journalists alleged abuse and harassment by armed Serbs in Kosovo and were given a police escort out of Yugoslavia Thursday before NATO warplanes struck for a second night.

"Authorities cracked down and shut down our operations," said CNN reporter Brent Sadler, reporting from Skopje in neighboring Macedonia, after leaving the Kosovo provincial capital of Pristina.

For a few hours Wednesday, CNN had been able to broadcast the allied bombardment of the city, but "it became pretty clear to us, because of uncontrolled armed elements wandering around Pristina, that they felt we could be harassed and victimized," Sadler said.

He said he was taken to the Macedonian border by Serb police in an armed convoy with some 15 other Western journalists. "They were civil and no one was harmed."

But he said Western reporters in Pristina were verbally abused after Wednesday night's bombardment.

Sadler's CNN colleague, Christiane Amanpour, who had been in Belgrade during Wednesday night's allied bombardment, left Yugoslavia Thursday for Brussels.

"Serb regulars came in our hotel and ransacked our rooms," she reported from the Belgian capital. "This (expulsion) denies the world the opportunity to see what is going on. But it's very difficult when the state media attacks CNN, calling us a 'factory of lies'," she said.

The Yugoslav Information Ministry issued a statement through the official Tanjug news agency, citing a Serbian law as the basis for the expulsions.

"With their reporting from the territory of ... Serbia, these journalists had spurred aggressive action by NATO forces against our country and were misinforming the world public on the current situation in Yugoslavia," the statement said.

There were other reports Thursday saying reporters might be allowed back into Yugoslavia. NBC said its two correspondents in Belgrade -- Ron Allen and Jim Maceda -- were staying put and had not been told to leave.

However, The New York Times said two of its reporters were expelled and the Washington Post said its reporter, Peter Finn, was detained and interrogated by Serb police for about seven hours before he was escorted to the border with Croatia.

CBS and ABC staff were also held by Serb authorities.

The White House strongly criticized the expulsion of foreign journalists.

"I think that says an awful lot about President (Slobodan) Milosevic and his authoritarian regime. We take any action or threats against Americans seriously," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said.

The United States would not retaliate and expel Serbian journalists, he said, adding: "That's not how we work."

Philip Bennett, assistant managing editor for foreign news at the Washington Post, said Finn was detained early Thursday and held for about seven hours at a police station.

"They did not mistreat him physically and they did not explain the reason they were expelling him. They asked him about where he had been in the country and specific other journalists as well," said Bennett, adding that police had inspected Finn's notebooks.

He was then driven to the border with Croatia where he was released and he was now on his way to Hungary. Bennett said Finn was interrogated along with CBS reporter Mark Phillips and a Dutch radio journalist Harald Doornbos.

A spokeswoman for the New York Times said two of the paper's reporters, Steve Erlanger and Blaine Harden, had been ordered to leave Belgrade. She had no further details.

In addition, she said, New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall and her translator had left Kosovo and gone to Macedonia.

ABC spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said one of the network's producers in Belgrade, Clark Benson, had been expelled and the network's other eight people had either left on their own or were being expelled Thursday. "We don't think it's safe to return at the moment," said Murphy.

CBS spokeswoman Sandy Genelius said a freelance soundman working for the network was held overnight in Belgrade with about 12 to 15 other journalists who were watching the air strikes from the roof of a hotel. She believed they were being released but had not yet heard any news.

CBS correspondents Allen Pizzey, his three-man TV crew and radio correspondent Kimberley Dozier were in Pristina but were planning to leave by car for Macedonia Thursday. She could not say whether correspondent Phillips and his crew had left.

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US Senator Urges Milosevic Downfall

Capitol Hill-AP - Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms has introduced a bill aimed at toppling Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic (sloh-BOH'-dahn mee-LOH'-shuh-vich).

Helms has told the Senate that Milosevic is a "cruel man" who has to go.

His bill, which has already drawn co-sponsors including Indiana's Richard Lugar, would authorize the United States to spend 100 (m) million dollars to undermine Milosevic and encourage democracy in Serbia.

Helms says the "important thing" is that Milosevic is removed from power -- "whether voluntarily or not."

Another Senate proposal, by Connecticut Democrat Joseph Lieberman and Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, recommends the United States arm the Kosovar Albanians so they can defend themselves against the Serbs.

There's some support in Congress for both measures

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Russian Passion toward Serbia Has Epic History

Reuters - Western leaders may see the Serbs as the main aggressors in Kosovo, but Russians, with few exceptions, disagree.

In the great Russian author Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina," hundreds of young Russian volunteers, singing patriotic songs, pack into railroad cars bound for Serbia to fight in the Balkans.

"The heroism of the Serbs and Montenegrins, fighting for a great cause, aroused in the whole nation a desire to help their brothers not only with words but with deeds," he wrote.

Russia has fought to defend Serbia, which shares a language, religion and culture similar to its own, at least half a dozen times in the last 150 years.

Today Russians from across the political spectrum see the United States as the new bully in the Balkans, taking the place of Ottoman Turkey, imperial Austria and Nazi Germany.

Tolstoy wrote about Serbia's grip on the Russian imagination in 1877, when Tsar Alexander II, a reformer whose opponents in the State Duma attacked him as weak and incompetent, rattled sabres over Serbia to prove the strength of the Russian state.

The novelist could have been writing four decades later, during the Balkan Wars of 1912-13. Or during World War I, when Russia fought to free Bosnian Serbs from Austria. Or during World War II, when Russians spoke in awe of Communist Serb partisans struggling against German and Croatian fascists.

If you listen to the talk in Moscow, he could have been writing today.

The author of fliers circulating on Thursday in ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party headquarters is clearly no Tolstoy. But the message comes across well enough.

"Today, the victims of the worldwide menace are our centuries-old brothers in arms, faith, spirit and flesh -- the Orthodox Slav Serbs!" it read.

When Andrei Kornev, an unemployed former Soviet military mechanic from the Ural Mountains city of Penza, saw Zhirinovsky on television call for volunteers to defend Serbia, he took his last few hundred roubles and flew to Moscow to sign up.

He was joined by a few dozen other men at Zhirinovsky's headquarters.

"It makes me angry that the Americans go wherever they please. I want to help my brother Serbs any way I can," he said.

Slavic nationalism has often bubbled up in Russia when the government has been weak, said historian Richard Wortman of Columbia University in New York.

The ailing President Boris Yeltsin "is very much in the same position as Alexander II," he said.

Nationalists and Communists have indeed made a cause of Serbia throughout the Yeltsin years. The nationalist newspaper Zavtra has been known to print poems by Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic on its front page.

But by defying Russia to launch its air strikes, NATO has infuriated many Russians who otherwise might have had little sympathy for Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.

"It is insulting when Russia is ignored," an announcer on ORT television said, a passing comment that summed up the mood.

For now there is little Russians can do to vent their outrage. Some pelted the American embassy with eggs on Thursday. A small handful, like Kornev, may even head to Kosovo to fight.

But if not all the words lead to real action, that would be another sign that much has not changed since Tolstoy's day.

"Amid this general elation in Society, those who were unsuccessful or discontented leapt to the front and shouted louder than anyone else: Commanders in Chief without armies, ministers without portfolios, journalists without newspapers and party leaders without followers," the novelist wrote.

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Serb Attack Drives Refugees into Albania

DOBRUNE, Albania- Reuters - Ethnic Albanian refugees poured into Albania Thursday after Serbian forces torched a village in neighboring Kosovo following NATO's bombing of Yugoslav targets.

Serbian forces also shelled villages in northeastern Albania, shot and wounded a border post commander and killed numerous ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Albanian officials and news reports said.

The Kosovo press agency, in a report that could not be immediately verified, said the Serbian army had rounded up 20,000 ethnic Albanian civilians in Qirez village.

"There exist fears that Srebrenica might be repeated," Kosovo Press, monitored by Albanian television, said in reference to the slaughter of Muslims in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war.

The ethnic Albanian village of Goden, just inside Kosovo near the border post of Dobrune 185 miles northeast of Tirana, was in flames after being attacked by Serbian forces.

Smoke was rising from all 21 houses and the school of Goden, a village of 250 people.

Some 200 mostly women and children were taken to a Serbian border post at Dobrune where they were picked up by Western aid workers.

"I am alive thanks to the Serbian border post commander, who was my friend and gave me his word I would not be shot," Selim Ferraj, 37, standing with his three children, said.

He said the Serb soldiers, wearing head scarves, had rounded up 24 men from the village.

"I am afraid the Chetniks (paramilitaries) have shot my brother Ali who remained behind with 23 other men," he added.

He said the Serb commander had told him: "These air strikes would finish Serbia. But then Kosovo and Albania would also cease to exist."

Only 10 men had been allowed to cross into Albania with the women and children, who were later driven to a collection center in nearby Kruma.

Kudusi Lama, who heads the Second Infantry Division in Kukes, a border town 155 miles northeast of Tirana, said the frontier was "very hot," with Serbs shooting at Albanian soldiers and wounding the commander of the Dobrune military post in the morning.

Later, sniper fire from Serbian troops from across the border in Kosovo prevented European monitors and reporters from coming near the scene of the morning gunfight.

Albania is worried Serbia might seek to bring it into the conflict in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians outnumber the Serbian population nine to one.

Tirana also fears an influx of refugees across the border. Last summer 20,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo fled to Albania to escape a Serbian military crackdown on separatists.

In the Kosovo regional capital Pristina, the wife of Bajram Kelmendi, a human rights lawyer hired by the Koha Ditore daily that was closed down by the authorities, said he was taken away by Serbian police along with his two sons from their house.

"You wanted NATO to come, you want a republic? Do you know how many victims we have had?" Kelmendi's wife, Nakibe, said angry Serbian policemen told her in Pristina.

"In one of the police stations, they told me to ask NATO where he is," Nakibe told the Albanian section of the Voice of America radio station.

In Mitrovice, an ethnic Albanian reporter told VOA that masked men speaking Serbian had killed local Kosovo Albanian politician Latif Berisha, 67, and trade union leader Agim Hajrizi, 38, his mother Nazmije, 60, and his 12-year-old son Ilir in their homes.

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Yugoslav Deputy PM: I Think We Must Compromise

XINHUA - Yugoslavia Thursday seemed to have offered to halt its military operations in Kosovo if NATO agreed to stop bombing Yugoslavia.

"Stop bombing us and we will stop all operations against the people, the terrorists who provoked NATO strikes against Serbia," Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic told Britain's Sky television in a telephone interview.

Yugoslavia used to say that the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo are terrorists.

"I think we must compromise," Draskovic said when asked if it was time for diplomacy and compromise.

He said Serbia was not the only party to blame for the NATO strikes.

Attacks by the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army had triggered Serbian military action and were therefore responsible for the NATO strikes, Draskovic said.

"It's impossible to talk under the bombing," he noted. He stressed that the Kosovo Albanians must also stop their military actions in Kosovo.