President Slobodan Milosevic flew back to Belgrade after agreeing in talks with Russian Leaders to meet many to meet many powers for ending bloodshed in his troubled province of Kosovo.
But though Russia was quick to present the pledges made by its Yugoslav ally as a major breakthrough, the United States and other western countries said Mr Milosevic had not gone far enough.
"Clearly it is an important step forward - President Yeltsin trying to convince President Milosevic not to continue violence and to begin a dialogue. It moves us in the right direction but I don't think it ends the journey," a Pentagon spokesman, Mr Ken Bacon, said in Washington after the Moscow talks.
Mr Milosevic's promises, contained in a joint statement with Mr Yeltsin, included a pledge to continue negotiations with leaders of ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province.
But Mr Milosevic failed to agree to an immediate withdrawal of the Serbian security forces fighting independence-minded Albanians in Kosovo - the key demand set by the six-nation contact group on ex-Yugoslavia for averting NATO intervention.
Mr Milosevic left Moscow late last night after a tough day of negotiations which ended with a symbolic visit to Patriarch Alexiy designed to stress the religious ties linking his native Serbia and Russia, both Orthodox Christian nations.
His two-day Russian trip marked a rare foray in the international arena for Mr Milosevic, who is widely reviled in the west for his crackdown in Kosovo, his role in the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia and his reluctance to embrace market reforms. But in Moscow he received a much more sympathetic hearing.
"I think in principle we reached agreement. The important thing id that Milosevic agreed to sit at the negotiating table with the Kosovo Albanians," Mr Yeltsin said after hosting the Yugoslav leader in the Kremlin.
"We do not forget we [Russia and Yugoslavia] are Slav States and friends," Mr Yeltsin added. The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, was similarly upbeat. "We consider this [agreement] now opens a real possibility to regulate the situation and the ball is now to a large extent in the Kosovo Albanians' court," Mr Primakov told a news conference.
Russia's parliament, dominated by communists and nationalists, expressed support for Yugoslavia and condemned NATO threats to intervene on Kosovo.
Patriarch Alexiy also had words of comfort for Mr Milosevic, "Kosovo is a special, sacred place for Serbia that is linked to the people's history and its fight for independence and freedom," Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as telling Mr Milosevic.
The Kremlin said Mr Yeltsin had outlined his talks with Mr Milosevic to President Clinton by telephone and that Mr Clinton wad expressed satisfaction with the results. But the Us Secretary of Sate, Ms Madeleine Albright, wanted more.
"There was some progress but [Mr Milosevic] did not meet the primary points that the Contact Group raised," she said, reiterating that armed intervention had not been ruled out.
President Chirac of France echoed Ms Albright, saying a promise to negotiate was not enough for the world community. Britain took a broadly similar view.