Western leaders yesterday stepped up their plans to secure peace in the Balkans with a massive reconstruction and development package, as NATO forces consolidated their hold on Kosovo and began the process of demilitarising the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
President Clinton and the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, announced there would be a special summit of western leaders and regional heads of government in Sarajevo next month.
Speaking in Bonn, Mr Clinton repeated the West's determination to exclude Belgrade from reconstruction aid as long as President Slobodan Milosevic remains in power, but he acknowledged that Serbia would receive humanitarian aid.
"It is important that if the Serbs want to keep Mr Milosevic, that at least they not freeze to death this winter, and that their hospitals not be forced to close. In terms of rebuilding bridges so people can go to work, I don't buy that. That's part of economic reconstruction and I don't think we should help. Not a bit, not a penny," he said.
A few hours earlier, the KLA signed an agreement with Lieut Gen Sir Michael Jackson, the commander of the Kfor peacekeeping force in Kosovo, promising to disarm and effectively ending its existence as a military force. The agreement, which comes into effect immediately, calls for the KLA to cease firing all weapons, to stop using explosive devices and to store weapons in secure, Kfor-verified sites within 90 days.
The KLA has agreed to expel all foreign members, to stop wearing uniforms on major public thoroughfares, to leave checkpoints and observation posts and to clear all mines and booby-traps.
Two British soldiers and two civilians were killed by an explosion outside a school near Pristina as troops searched for landmines. The deaths came a day after Yugoslav forces completed their withdrawal from Kosovo and NATO declared an official end to its bombing campaign.
Mr Clinton, who was in Bonn for a US-EU summit at which world trade was also discussed, acknowledged that the cost of rebuilding the Balkans would be substantial but added that it would have been more expensive to continue bombing. Mr Schroder said next month's meeting in Sarajevo would bring together the Western countries and agencies who will pay for the reconstruction package and the Balkan governments that will benefit.
The EU is understood to have recommended three candidates to lead the UN civilian administration in Kosovo, which will oversee the restoration of civil structures. They are the founder of Medecins sans Frontieres, Mr Bernard Kouchner, the outgoing EU Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, and the leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats, Mr Paddy Ashdown.
Mr Clinton went on from Bonn to Slovenia, the first state to detach itself from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, where he spoke to 4,000 people in the centre of Ljubljana. He praised Slovenia as an example of what a democratic Balkans could achieve.
