NATO forces resumed their bombing campaign against Yugoslavia last night after the Western allies rejected a Russian proposal to stop air strikes and start talks with the Yugoslav leader, President Slobodan Milosevic.
The Russian Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, flew to Bonn last night after more than six hours of talks in Belgrade.
He told the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, that the Yugoslav leader was prepared to withdraw some of his forces from Kosovo and allow refugees to return to their homes as soon as NATO ended its air strikes.
Mr Milosevic was willing to consider the Rambouillet agreement as a basis for negotiations on Kosovo's future but gave no indication that he would accept a NATO-led implementation force to enforce any new deal.
Mr Schroder immediately rejected the offer as unacceptable, adding that he was certain this view would be shared by other NATO leaders. "This is no basis for a political solution," he said.
President Clinton warned President Milosevic that he was undermining international support for his claim to Kosovo by his continued attacks on the Kosovar population. The US has up to now rejected any Kosovo claims to independence.
Meanwhile a Reuters eyewitness report told of a six-mile column of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo who said they were harried by Serbs through the mountains in driving snow. They were crossing into Montenegro, said a cameraman, Mr Derek Pascoe.
On his arrival in Bonn, Mr Primakov described his talks in Belgrade as the basis of a peaceful solution to the conflict between Yugoslavia and NATO powers.
"The signal that the international community expects is the withdrawal of Yugoslav military and paramilitary units from Kosovo," Mr Schroder said.
Mr Milosevic's other conditions for a settlement included an end to armed action by the Kosovo Liberation Army and the withdrawal of Albanian and NATO forces from the Yugoslavian border.
Since the war started on March 24th, Mr Milosevic, who does not have a military background, has been referred to by Serb media as the "President and Commander-in-Chief".
He has made no public speeches, and last night's disappointing IT]denouement was no exception.
A TV anchorwoman read the cleverly drafted text, guaranteed to convince Mr Milosevic's supporters that he was a reasonable fellow and NATO the evil empire. "NATO aggression must stop," was repeated twice in the five-minute statement.
Britain insisted that it wanted "action, not words" from Mr Milosevic before considering an end to air strikes.
Before Mr Primakov's arrival in Bonn, Germany's Defence Minister, Mr Rudolf Scharping, predicted that Mr Milosevic would attempt over the next two or three weeks to turn Kosovo into a region of destroyed villages where the adult male population will have been interned or killed and the rest driven out or fleeing.
Earlier yesterday, NATO likened the Serbian offensive against Kosovo Albanians to the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge.
Germany has invited the foreign ministers of eight countries in the Balkans region to attend a conference today on the Kosovo refugee crisis.