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NATO optimistic over Kosovo dealBUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia -- NATO says it is still confident it can broker a deal to end fighting between ethnic Albanian rebels and Yugoslav security forces along the border with Kosovo. Leaders of the ethnic Albanians have so far rejected the ceasefire plan for the tense buffer zone in southern Serbia but they are expected to meet on Monday to discuss it further. Meanwhile Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has announced that he will visit Yugoslavia and neighbouring Macedonia from March 18-20 to try to help defuse tensions in the region. NATO's special envoy Peter Feith spent the weekend in separate talks with a delegation from Serbia and a group of ethnic Albanians. The Western alliance wants to end the violence which has spread out of Kosovo into Serbia proper and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia . The main stumbling block for the rebels is NATO's decision to allow Yugoslav forces into the buffer zone near the Macedonian border to try to curb weapons smuggling to ethnic Albanian guerrillas operating there. But Feith said on Monday he remained optimistic he could reach an agreement with the rebels. "I would hope so, yes," he said when questioned in the town of Bujanovac, around 350 kilometres (220 miles) south of Belgrade. "They are consulting their commanders and their leadership and we hope to be in contact with them a little bit later today." Asked whether there was a deadline for a deal, he said: "I think we have to draw a conclusion by the middle of the day." More than 30 people have been killed over the past year in sporadic fighting between Serbian security forces and ethnic Albanian rebels in the Presevo Valley. Instability has spread over recent weeks with violence involving ethnic Albanians also breaking out on Kosovo's border with Macedonia. NATO decided last week to let Yugoslav forces into part of the five kilometre (three mile)-wide buffer zone which flanks Kosovo's boundary with Serbia proper, close to where Kosovo also touches Macedonia. NATO officials have said they would prefer to have a ceasefire in place before Yugoslav forces go into the zone but they insist it is not a prerequisite. Feith promised an announcement later on Monday about when Yugoslav forces could enter the buffer zone. The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo said its commander, Lieutenant General Carlo Cabigiosu of Italy, would make a statement at the border later on Monday. Russia's Ivanov will visit Yugoslavia's capital Belgrade, Kosovo and Macedonia during his visit which Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency says is being made at the request of President Vladimir Putin. "I am going to discuss the situation in the region, questions of our bilateral relations and the current situation at the Kosovo stretch of the Yugoslav-Macedonian border," the agency quoted Ivanov as saying. Russia has criticised ethnic Albanian rebels from Kosovo over recent violence on the border with Macedonia, which had previously avoided the bloodshed of its neighbours. Moscow has historic and religious ties with the Serbs who dominate Yugoslavia and strongly opposed NATO's air strikes on Belgrade in 1999 over violence in Kosovo. Like Yugoslavia and Macedonia, Russia blames the renewed insurgency by ethnic Albanians on NATO's failure to disarm militant groups in Kosovo. The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES:
Kosovo peace talks to continue RELATED SITES:
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