The Yugoslav Foreign Minister, Mr Goran Svilanovic, made a landmark visit to Washington yesterday - the first diplomatic visit of any minister from the federation since NATO'S 78-day bombing.
Mr Svilanovic, who fought as a reserve soldier during the war, met with the outgoing Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, the woman whom many Serbs love to hate, because she argued for the air campaign and championed the cause of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. The meeting signalled a new warmth in the relationship between Belgrade and Washington, after Yugoslavia's new President Vojislav Kostunica - who strongly condemned the NATO assault - had avoided meeting Ms Albright at a security conference in Austria, despite her publicly expressed desire to meet him.
One US official described the Svilanovic-Albright meeting as marking "the end of an era". It comes a week before Mr Svilanovic travels to Brussels to meet directly with leaders of NATO - the institution that carried out the bombing on his country.
In Washington he was also to meet with legislators and low-level members of the incoming administration of Mr George Bush, who takes over on January 20th, but not with Ms Albright's designated successor, former General Colin Powell.
The US visit comes as co-operation between Yugoslavia, NATO and the US is growing as a result of problems in southern Serbia in a five-mile buffer zone that borders Kosovo.
Ethnic Albanian guerrillas have infiltrated the zone, which the Yugoslav army cannot enter, according to the Kumanovo agreement signed at the end of the bombing. The rebels are seeking the separation of the three southern Serbian municipalities which are closest to the border and ultimately want them joined to Kosovo.
On Tuesday, NATO struck an agreement with Belgrade that allowed European Union monitors to take the unprecedented step of escorting a column of Serbs from Serbia through the zone and into Kosovo - even though it is on the Serb side of the Kosovo border. This leaves Yugoslavia dependent on a foreign force to ensure the safety of its nationals within part of Serbia proper.
High on the agenda of the Washington meeting was the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague and Yugoslavia's obligation to hand over indicted war criminals, most notably Mr Slobodan Milosevic.
Yugoslavia was keen to stress its substantial economic problems. US legislators have agreed a $100 million aid package, but have set a March 31st deadline to decide if the country has made sufficient progress on consolidating its democracy, before releasing the cash.
Co-operation on war crimes indictees is likely to feature in their reckoning. Belgrade has recently raised the issue of a domestic trial for Mr Milosevic for corruption and electoral fraud. A State Department official said the United States would acquiesce to Belgrade prosecuting Mr Milosevic domestically, provided it agreed an agenda with the tribunal at The Hague, whose chief prosecutor is Mr Carla del Ponte. "I think if they've got a domestic prosecution they should get it under way and then talk to the prosecutor," he said.
Washington was also keen to discuss the hundreds of ethnic Albanians seized by Yugoslav forces who are now languishing in Serb jails and to raise the status of Montenegro.