The Scottish National Party leader, Mr Alex Salmond, has criticised Britain's involvement in NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia, describing the bombing as an "unpardonable folly."
In a broadcast on Scottish television last night, Mr Salmond compared the bombings to the blitz of London during the second World War and said politicians should not pursue a "misguided" policy and then ask servicemen and women to implement it.
Calling for the bombings to stop, Mr Salmond said: "In virtually every country which has been blitzed this century, the reaction has been to steel the resolve of the civilian population. Why should we believe there will not be the same reaction in Serbia?" Mr Salmond said the "misguided" policy would not weaken the position of the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
The Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, said Mr Salmond's comments illustrated he was "simply unfit to lead".
President Jacques Chirac, in a televised statement to the French nation yesterday, said Mr Milosevic was responsible for the deaths of more than 200,000 people in the Balkans in his 10-year rule.
"Europe cannot accept having one man and one regime which, for nearly 10 years, has carried out ethnic cleansing campaigns, murders and massacres in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and now Kosovo, with 200,000 people killed and millions displaced."