Diplomatic efforts were making some headway yesterday, according to Russian sources who had rare praise for NATO member France for pushing the idea of adapting the Rambouillet accord.
President Yeltsin said Russia was working on new proposals to halt NATO's bombing and called for an urgent meeting of the world's leading eight foreign ministers. The Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, suggested a Kosovo summit might be needed.
Mr Ivanov praised France for saying the Rambouillet accord for Kosovo needed adapting. On Wednesday, the French Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, said world leaders needed to work on the accord.
AFP adds from Budapest:
President Milosevic and the moderate Kosovo Albanian leader, Mr Ibrahim Rugova, have agreed on working out a plan for creating an interim government in Kosovo, Russia's parliamentary speaker, Mr Gennady Seleznev, said yesterday.
Their plan would also promote the return of refugees to Kosovo, Mr Seleznev told a news conference at Budapest's Ferihegy Airport on his way home to Russia after talks with Mr Milosevic in Belgrade on Wednesday, Hungary's MTI news agency reported.