Pressure is expected to grow for NATO to send ground troops into Kosovo when the US Congress debates the American role in Operation Allied Force this week. The US has announced it is sending an extra 82 warplanes to intensify the air strikes.
While the Easter recess has meant that President Clinton has been free to pursue the NATO air strikes policy for the past three weeks without having to pay too much attention to the reactions of Congress, the Republican majority is showing increasing unease. A number of Republicans are expected to table resolutions calling for a more intensive campaign again Serbian forces which could involve the use of NATO ground troops.
Mr Clinton will today begin briefing leading Congress members on his Kosovan policy. US public opinion is moving steadily towards the sending of US ground troops to Kosovo as the TV pictures nightly show the misery of refugees. Mr Clinton has so far insisted that ground troops will only be deployed with the agreement of President Milosevic in accordance with the Rambouillet agreement of February.
However, the US has confirmed that NATO has contingency plans for sending ground troops to Kosovo to take on Serb forces if that should prove necessary. The Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, said yesterday that assessments made last year of various options were still "on the shelf" and "can be taken down off the shelf and updated at any time that the Commander-in-Chief, President Clinton, decides that is necessary."
He said: "For the time being we have a set of objectives . . . and an air campaign which is going to continue and intensify, and we think that is sufficient to achieve those objectives."
A New York Times/CBS poll last week found that 76 per cent of Americans believe that the US will send ground troops to Kosovo. A CNN poll at the weekend found that 47 per cent actually "support" the idea, up from 31 per cent several weeks ago. Only 25 per cent believe that air strikes alone can achieve the NATO goals of restoring the Kosovan refugees to their homes under an autonomous regime.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, will meet other NATO foreign ministers today in Brussels. Tomorrow she will meet the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, in Oslo to seek Russian help in persuading Mr Milosevic to accept the NATO demands, including withdrawal of his forces from Kosovo.
The warning by President Boris Yeltsin last week that there was a danger of a European war if NATO troops went into Kosovo caused a diplomatic flurry.