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Albright leaves Andrews Air Force Base for Europe, where she will discuss the military campaign in Yugoslavia with NATO and Russian officials

April 11, 1999
Web posted at: 7:27 a.m. EDT (1127 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Amid heightened tension with Russia and continuing airstrikes in Yugoslavia, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright flew to Europe on Sunday for scheduled talks with NATO and Russian foreign ministers on the allied air campaign.

The campaign shows no sign of an early end and has threatened ties with Moscow.

Last Friday, tensions rose when Russian President Boris Yeltsin said in televised remarks that he told NATO not to push Moscow into the Yugoslav conflict, or it could spark a European or even a world war.

Albright, who has advocated using force to influence Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, was headed first to Brussels, home of NATO headquarters.

She was to have a working dinner late on Sunday with NATO Secretary General Javier Solana.

On Monday, she joins allied foreign ministers in consultations on NATO's approach to the Kosovo crisis and on arrangements for the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians forced out of the province by Serb forces since the alliance began the air war on March 24.

In addition to the group meeting, Albright will hold separate talks with the French, German, Canadian and possibly other foreign ministers.

On Monday night, she hosts a working dinner for the foreign ministers of the frontline states that are hardest hit by the crisis -- Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia.

The next day, Albright flies to Oslo for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, whose government has become increasingly fierce -- some say ominously so -- in its criticism of NATO for the military operation.

After Yeltsin's remarks on Friday, the Kremlin later backpedaled, and the White House said it had been assured by Russian authorities that Moscow would stay out of the conflict.

But U.S. officials, while sympathetic to Yeltsin's domestic political pressures to take a hard line against the West, are growing more anxious as the Russian rhetoric has escalated.

The New York Times reported in Saturday's editions that the United States had quietly warned Russia against providing military intelligence or assistance to Yugoslavia.

One senior western official was quoted by the newspaper as saying Moscow was told that Russian intervention on behalf of Belgrade would have "very significant consequences."

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