NATO's deputy commander, Gen Rupert Smith, arrived yesterday on , Albania's border with Kosovo, as a major humanitarian relief operation got under way.
Officials here refuse to comment on the visit, but it has fuelled speculation that the alliance intends to establish a "safe haven" inside Kosovo, possibly guarded by NATO troops, to protect the dispossessed.
It comes as Albania faces being swamped by Kosovo's refugees, who continue to cross as fast as Serbia can push them out: "It's getting close to 100,000 now," said Ms Andrea Angeli, at Tirana's office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. "The influx is not showing any signs of easing."
But aid experts say the worst crisis is faced not by escaping Kosovans - who can be fed by international aid - but those still trapped inside the country.
"The internal food distribution system has broken down as a result of the conflict," said World Food Programme director Ms Catherine Bertini. "This is just the beginning of a potential humanitarian catastrophe."
One Kosovo Albanian woman in regular contact with her parents in the capital, Pristina, says they have little food - having had no warning to stock up before Serb forces set up barricades throughout the town. "They don't dare to go out, not even of their own block," she said.
Italy is taking the lead in getting relief to Albania. The Italian army and navy are building a "tent city" on the coastal plain near the Albanian capital, Tirana, with the Italian government sending a fleet of 400 buses to bring the refugees down from the mountains.
World Food programme deliveries have begun, with 40 tonnes of wheat flour arriving here, and nearly 10 tonnes of biscuits being sent up the road to Kukes.
But aid workers are grappling with endless complexities: unlike a natural disaster, they are hampered by continual fighting, which has closed airports in Albania.
Aid experts cannot plan because no one knows how many Kosovans the Serbs intend to expel.
In the long term, Europe may have to find homes for the 500,000 refugees who have already been expelled. Meanwhile, NATO's bombing campaign continued and intensified yesterday. Belgrade claimed that eight people, both soldiers and civilians, had been killed, and 22 injured.
Reuters adds: Three US soldiers who reported they had come under small arms fire while travelling in a military vehicle in Macedonia are missing, a US defence official said yesterday.