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June 1, 1999
Web posted at: 7:53 p.m. EDT (2353 GMT)

In this story: NATO pledges to continue bombing NATO, KLA cooperation? NATO says Serb army suffers losses RELATED STORIES, SITES

BONN, Germany (CNN) -- Following "substantial progress" in talks on drafting a Kosovo peace plan, Russian special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari planned to travel to Belgrade on Wednesday to present a new proposal to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

The two envoys met for hours Tuesday with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in Bonn to work out disagreements among the G-8 -- the world's top seven industrialized nations and Russia -- on terms for a potential peace deal. Talks were expected to continue late into the evening.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who joined the envoys for dinner at a hotel overlooking the Rhine, said they had made "concrete progress" on several points.

"I think we have been able to clarify issues," said Ahtisaari, who represents the European Union in Kosovo diplomacy. "I do not want to say it does not mean that in all details we agree 100 percent."

But, he added, "it's fair to say at this stage we will be prepared to go and find out whether the Yugoslav leadership is prepared to accept the peace offer."

Details of the proposal were not immediately released, but Ahtisaari said the terms had been spelled out in separate decisions by NATO, the European Union and the G-8, and had been endorsed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Russia and the seven Western powers endorsed Kosovo peace principles last month that call for a well-armed international "security presence" in the province to secure the return of refugees.

Yugoslavia has said it agrees to those principles. The country's foreign minister, Zivadin Jovanovic, sent a letter Tuesday to the European Union offering to accept the G-8's terms, including "a United Nations presence, mandate and other elements to be decided by a U.N. Security Council resolution in accordance with the United Nations charter."

But a key obstacle to a settlement has been disagreement over the make-up of the peacekeeping force. NATO insists it must be at the core of any international force in Kosovo and has said that Milosevic must withdraw all his forces from the province -- demands Milosevic has adamantly rejected.

Asked if Russia was ready to accept NATO participation in the peacekeeping mission, Chernomyrdin told reporters: "We're discussing all issues concerning the position of this problem." He added that Russia "has decided to take part" in the operation.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Tuesday that the letter from Jovanovic was a "positive signal," but cautioned that Yugoslavia's willingness to deal could only be measured by the outcome of Wednesday's talks in Belgrade.

Following the meeting with Milosevic, the envoys are to report back to Schroeder who will then present the results to the 15 EU leaders Thursday at their summit in Cologne.

NATO pledges to continue bombing

Despite progress on the diplomatic front, NATO pledged the attacks would continue until the "political masters" reach an agreement.

By late Tuesday, powerful explosions rocked the Belgrade suburbs of Batajnica, where a military airport is located, and Lipovicka Suma, home to a communications center.

Military barracks in Obrenovac, near Belgrade, were hit during the raids, and power was out throughout much of the Yugoslav capital.

There were reports of attacks in Pancevo, Nis (Yugoslavia's third largest city) and the Kosovo capital of Pristina, as well as in the Serb towns of Cuprija and Ruma. Studio B also said a key highway between Pancevo and Belgrade was hit.

Serb state media said NATO missiles hit an apartment block in the town of Novi Pazar late Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 20. Hours earlier, NATO hit a hospital and retirement home in the eastern town of Surdulica, the Yugoslav government said.

At least 16 people were killed in that attack, the government said. Western journalists were shown a devastated section of the city, including bodies lying under sheets outside the medical complex and retirement home.

A man runs towards the site of a Serb attack on the town of Kurma, Albania

NATO said it targeted a barracks and ammunition storage facility in Surdulica, adding that "all munitions hit the planned aiming points."

Later Tuesday, NATO acknowledged that civilian deaths can and do happen, but said it could not confirm striking those sites. Instead, spokesman Jamie Shea cast doubt on the veracity of the Serb media reports.

"I think it's clear to everyone ... that Serb TV (is) not a reliable source," Shea said at a media briefing Tuesday.

"Obviously the Western media are going to report civilian casualties that Milosevic says were killed by NATO, but there is an enduring and fundamental difference between unintentional casualties, which Milosevic lets the media see, and the real story, the real tragedy unfolding in Kosovo, which he doesn't," Shea said.

British Defense Secretary George Robertson said all of NATO's civilian strikes were accidental, "and every one of them is regretted."

He added that "NATO does not and will not target civilians, unlike Milosevic, whose whole purpose is to deliberately target and attack Kosovar civilians."

NATO, KLA cooperation?

Serb forces and Kosovo Liberation Army troops battled Tuesday along Albania's border with the southern Serb province of Kosovo. Earlier, reporters watched a NATO A-10 jet drop a bomb in the hills just over the Albanian side of the border crossing at Morini.

News Highlights: Gallery: The conflict in review News story archive Yugoslavia's Future: What's next for Yugoslavia Map: Who controls what The Peace Settlement: A guide to the peace plan Map: Serb troop withdrawal The Military Campaign: Strike damage assessment Atlas: NATO and the Balkans Background: Timeline: Trouble in the Balkans A who's who of key players Map: Kosovo and its neighbors A history of the KLA

In that attack, an Albanian army officer told The Associated Press that NATO destroyed government bunkers by mistake.

Huge craters, the work of NATO planes, dotted the landscape along the border, CNN's Martin Savidge reported from the scene, along with bomb fragments bearing English inscriptions -- the first physical evidence of NATO air support for KLA ground forces seeking independence for Kosovo.

But Shea said in Brussels that NATO and the KLA have no "direct contact," although their independent actions could possibly be beneficial to each other.

The Morini border crossing is the scene of intense fighting as the KLA conducts a major push to open new supply corridors into Kosovo.

NATO says Serb army suffers losses

NATO said Tuesday it had struck military facilities and equipment in Nis, Belgrade and other cities in Yugoslavia.

"The Serb army has lost a significant portion of its major equipment and is losing more each day," said NATO military spokesman Maj. Gen. Walter Jertz. "Life in the field is less and less tolerable as forces are in constant danger and in desperate need of resupply, as garrison support has been damaged."

Serb media reported blackouts in Belgrade for the sixth time. The power outages have reduced the capital's water reserves to 12.5 percent, and officials say the supplies cannot be replenished until electrical power is fully restored.

"Aren't they satisfied yet? Do they want us all dead or sick? I just cannot understand," said Milica Zivkovic, 34, a mother of two and one of many Serbs forced to leave her job because of the bombing.

NATO says it will not stop the bombing until Yugoslavia complies with five conditions that include a withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo and a 50,000-strong peacekeeping force in the province with NATO at its core.

The Correspondents Walter Rodgers, Martin Savidge and Matthew Chance and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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