Kosovo Liberation Army leaders have agreed to the terms of a peace deal negotiated at talks in France last month and have authorised its signature, a spokesman for the US envoy, Mr Chris Hill, said yesterday.
"The KLA General Staff has asked Ambassador Hill to convey to [the US] Secretary of State [Madeleine] Albright that it has approved the Rambouillet accords and authorised their signing," Mr Phil Reeker, Mr Hill's spokesman, said.
Mr Reeker spoke by telephone after Mr Hill spent more than six hours meeting KLA leaders at a safe house in the centre of the Serbian province of Kosovo.
He was guarded in his reaction to the KLA announcement, making it clear the US government viewed the actual signing of the peace deal by the KLA as the key to the matter.
"We've been into this process for a year," Mr Reeker said. "There have been some false steps and frustrations so let's just see what happens."
The breakthrough came as a surprise after reports that the separatist force had raised new objections to the deal. Mr Reeker said the KLA leaders had faced logistical problems coming together in the Serb-run province to consult each other.
The US envoy, Mr Richard Holbrooke, will be in Belgrade tomorrow to discuss Kosovo with Yugoslav and Serb leaders, the State Department said later.
Mr Holbrooke will urge the Serbian leadership to accept the political, military and civil aspects of the peace accord for the war-torn province of Kosovo, the spokesman, Mr James Rubin, said.
He would also press them to respect their commitments to the international community and exercise restraint.