Russian troops welcomed in Pristina by cheering Serbs

Thousands of wildly cheering Kosovo Serbs greeted Russian troops as liberators at 1.30 this morning in the capital of Kosovo in a development that puts into question the smooth deployment of NATO peacekeepers today.

Later this morning Russia said the troops' arrival was "a mistake". The soldiers had been ordered to leave "immediately", the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov said on CNN, reading a statement. The White House reacted saying it accepted Mr Ivanov's explanation "for now" but added that it wanted answers to Russia's investigation into the troop movement, CNN said.

"Ru-ss-i-a, Yu-go-slav-ia," the euphoric crowd chanted waving white, blue and red Russian flags as Serb policemen and soldiers fired volley after volley of Kalashnikov and machine-fire in a binge of joy-shooting.

Amid the din tired, blond Russians wearing rubber helmets and full battle dress leaned down to grasp the hands of women who came to greet them. I saw one of the Russians smoking a cigarette and looking dazed with emotion as he stared into the crowd. The 15 vehicle column was led by an armoured personnel carrier with a searchlight mounted on the top.

The Russian deployment was a deep embarrassment for NATO forces as they prepared amid massive publicity to send their own 15,000 troops over the border from Macedonia into Kosovo. The Russian force - however symbolic - upstaged NATO's own planned arrival of troops, who are eagerly awaited by Kovovo Albanians.

Mr Ivanov had said through an interpreter: "Unfortunately this did take place. . .The reasons have to be clarified."

The Russian minister said there would be a meeting between Russian and US military officials to discuss other military issues relating to the deployment of the international Kfor force.

NATO had believed that US-Russian talks had effectively stalled the Russian soldiers on the northern Kosovo border until daylight today. The Yugoslav government clearly encouraged the Russians to stage their entry into Pristina by announcing their imminent arrival on official TV.

Earlier last night Russia was seeking to reassure the United States that troops it was sending to the Serbian-Kosovo border would not enter the province until NATO did so from Macedonia.

Following TV pictures showing Russian troops entering Pristina, the White House said it was seeking to determine what was happening in Kosovo.

After a day of high drama tending towards farce when Russia surprised NATO by dispatching the paratroopers from Bosnia into Serbia and south towards Kosovo, the US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, was earlier last night reported to be holding talks in Moscow trying to clarify Russia's intentions.

President Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore had appeared satisfied with assurances that Russian troops would not provoke a confrontation with NATO by entering Kosovo and effectively establishing a Russian zone - something explicitly not included in NATO plans for the province.

In Pristina, there had even been rumours that British troops would land at Pristina airport precipitating a possible conflict.

It was not lost on people in Russia that yesterday was their national day. Pictures of their soldiers steaming through Serbia, national flags flying on their carriers, were shown on Russian TV.

In response to the Russian action, British and US military officers had moved to settle what was described as an unseemly squabble over which of their soldiers should enter Kosovo first from Macedonia. The British troops who were due to cross the border yesterday were stood down on the orders, apparently, of Gen Wesley Clark, the US supreme commander of NATO, who wanted US Marines to have the honour.

Gen Sir Michael Jackson, the Kfor commander, was said to be livid. However, in the face of the Russia's pre-emptive move in Serbia, the two allies put their differences to one side.

The British force includes a massive column of 420 vehicles, led by Challenger tanks, which, when it gets going into Kosovo, is expected to measure 14 km long.

Yugoslav forces continued to withdraw from the province yesterday but there were indications the Serbs were adopting a scorched earth policy as they made their exit. Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe observers reported torching and shelling of villages.

A British C-130 military transport plane crashed and exploded on landing at a dirt airstrip in Kukes last night, setting off repeated explosions from ammunition it was carrying, a NATO spokesman said.