TALKS between NATO and Yugoslav military commanders broke down early this morning and NATO's Lieut-Gen Sir Mike Jackson said the alliance would intensify its bombing until Belgrade gave in.
The Yugoslav delegation had failed to stick to the agreement on Serb withdrawal from Kosovo reached last week between Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Russian and EU envoys, he added. "NATO has no alternative but to continue and intensify the air campaign until such time as the Yugoslav side are prepared to agree to implement the agreement fully and without ambiguity."
The US has said NATO bombing of Yugoslavia will continue following the breakdown of talks and that it will hold discussions with NATO allies and major powers to decide on the next steps.
"We will continue discussions with our NATO allies and the G-8 to resolve this issue," a senior US official said this morning. "Meanwhile the air campaign will continue. We are prepared to meet with the Yugoslav delegation as necessary to achieve it," he added.
A Yugoslav spokesman also left open the prospect of further meetings. "We are ready to talk further," he told journalists.
NATO's stated aim in the two days of talks in Macedonia had been to get Yugoslav commanders to agree to its proposed details of routes and methods of a full Yugoslav retreat from Kosovo, not to negotiate over peace terms.
The meeting at a NATO air base in Kumanovo near the Macedonian border with Kosovo had resumed shortly after midnight following a five-hour adjournment. After two days of talks in a camouflaged tent, the Yugoslav generals had agreed to only six out of 20 clauses in a six-page document outlining a timetable for the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo by a number of designated routes.
The Yugoslav delegation, led by Gen Svetozar Marjanovic, a deputy chief of staff, objected to NATO's demand that all Serbian forces should withdraw from Kosovo within one week. The Serbs argued that their forces and infrastructure were too weak to meet this deadline and asked for it to be extended by a further seven days.
NATO suspicions that they were stalling were reinforced when the Serb generals protested against the presence of NATO troops within the peacekeeping force that will occupy Kosovo. NATO's presence at the core of the force is a key element in the peace deal accepted last week by President Milosovic and the Serbian parliament.
The NATO troops to go into Kosovo will be led by Lieut Gen Jackson, who was serving with the Parachute Regiment in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
Finland's President Martti Aht isaari, the EU envoy who helped to broker last week's deal, last night cancelled a trip to Beijing aimed at persuading China to back a UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo. Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight - the leading industrialised coun tries and Russia - are due to meet in Bonn today to approve a draft resolution based on the peace deal.
NATO's spokesman, Dr Jamie Shea, earlier warned that the campaign could be stepped up if the Yugoslav president attempted to renege on the peace deal. "We have dealt now for 10 years with President Milosovic and the one thing that we have learned is that we cannot take his word for anything."
A number of western leaders have called for the overthrow of Mr Milosovic. NATO's Secretary General, Mr Javier Solana, stressed yesterday, however, that Mr Milosevic's future was a matter for the Serbian people.
Air raid sirens sounded across Serbia early this morning and heavy NATO bombing was reported in Kosovo. The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said dozens of missiles were fired in the Prizren and Pec areas of western Kosovo late last night.
