British paratroops were last night set to fly out to the Balkans to spearhead the international force ready to enforce the Kosovo peace agreement.
NATO commanders will tomorrow hold talks with Yugoslav army chiefs to negotiate the final pull-out of the Serb forces from Kosovo and the entry of the international peacekeepers.
Lieut Gen Sir Michael Jackson, the British commander of the allied Rapid Reaction Force in Macedonia, will meet Yugoslav military leaders somewhere in the "general geographical area" of the Macedonian border.
NATO said Finnish, Russian and US officers, led by Gen Jackson, would meet the Yugoslavs at 9 a.m. (local time) at a location that was being kept secret, apparently to keep the media away.
NATO will present the Yugoslav delegation with conditions for a complete withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.
The alliance will stipulate which routes and exit points the Yugoslav forces must use to leave the province, including those for withdrawals while the bombing campaign continues.
The alliance, meanwhile, maintained its aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia, despite Thursday's diplomatic breakthrough, insisting it would not stop until it was sure Serb forces were on their way out.
The paratroops, who will fly out over the weekend, were among 4,000 extra troops to be put on standby to leave at "very short notice".
This will bring Britain's potential commitment to almost 20,000 - more than a third of the proposed total force strength of 50,000, though other reports put Britain's probable contribution much lower, at 13,000.
Army mine clearance and bomb disposal experts, and 12 RAF Chinook and Puma transport helicopters were also expected to be among the first to leave.
The Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Sir John Day, indicated that once the agreement was fully in place, the peacekeeping troops could start entering Kosovo within 48 hours.
Sir John was asked what role British troops would play in ensuring that the Kosovo Liberation Army disarms.
He said: "British troops will play exactly the same role as all NATO troops and the details of the peace agreement, the implementation of it, will be the same for all NATO troops and for all those in Kosovo."
Additional wide-bodied aircraft were already being hired to supplement the RAF's own troop transport capability, he added.
Meanwhile, NATO troops deployed in Macedonia have been put on alert to move into Kosovo within 24 hours of any deployment order, NATO spokesman Dr Jamie Shea said in Brussels yesterday.
Russia may contribute 5,000 to 10,000 soldiers to a peacekeeping force, Moscow's Balkans special envoy, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying yesterday.
He added that Moscow would fully finance the force on its own. "The price is not small, considering that the peacekeeping operation will probably last for a year," said President Yeltsin's envoy, who helped broker the 10-point Kosovo peace deal signed by President Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe has already started preparations for its new peace mission and will send a fact-finding advance party there when the first peacekeeping troops go in.
However, the news that Belgrade has agreed to international terms for peace in Kosovo took many Serbs living in the disputed southern province by surprise.
The initial reaction quickly turned into anger, disappointment and a determination to leave together with their army and police.
"With the arrival of NATO, a stampede of Albanians from Albania will start coming in. With the withdrawal of the army, columns of Serb refugees will start going out," said one Pristina resident, who declined to be named.