Brussels - The NATO military alliance said yesterday it was ready to respond to any request from the international community to help restore peace to Serbia's restive Kosovo province, and was keeping open all its options.
"If NATO had to act tomorrow, we would be able to act tomorrow," one NATO official told reporters after a meeting of ambassadors from the 16nation transatlantic military alliance. He said contingency planning on a whole range of options studied by NATO's military commanders was now at an advanced stage, but the alliance was unwilling to start narrowing these down in view of the changing situation.