Le procureur du Tribunal pénal international a été accueilli par des jets de pierres et d'S.ufs pourris. Elle a sommé Belgrade d'arrêter Slobodan Milosevic, le Conseil de l'Europe ayant rappelé mercredi qu'une coopération «pleine et entière avec le TPI» est l'une des conditions de l'admission de la Yougoslavie en son sein.

Ce n'est pas une porte claquée, mais un très mauvais départ. La rencontre tant attendue du procureur du Tribunal pénal international avec le président yougoslave s'est mal passée. La première, Carla Del Ponte, est sortie de l'entrevue de mauvaise humeur et sans faire aucune déclaration. Le second, Vojislav Kostunica, a laissé fuir son commentaire par communiqué interposé.«Des divergences sont apparues dans le cadre de la coopération avec le TPI. Les inculpations contre la majorité des leaders politiques et militaires serbes, ainsi que le fait que les Serbes font l'objet du plus grand nombre d'inculpations, pourraient être interprétées comme une tentative de faire endosser une responsabilité collective à un peuple», indique le dit communiqué.

L'existence de ces «divergences» n'étonnera personne tant les choses avaient été mal engagées dès le départ. Avant de se résoudre, forcé par ses alliés politiques, à rencontrer le procureur, Vojislav Kostunica l'avait d'abord boudé, prétextant un emploi du temps surchargé. Mais, sur le fond, les désaccords subsistent. Le procureur du TPI exige le transfert à La Haye des Serbes inculpés de crimes de guerre, au premier rang desquels figure Slobodan Milosevic. Les autorités yougoslaves lui ont opposé hier une fin de non-recevoir. «La position officielle du gouvernement est que les procès doivent avoir lieu sur le territoire de notre pays. Notre peuple doit avoir confiance dans des gens responsables pour faire passer la justice», a déclaré le ministre des Affaires étrangères, Goran Svilanovic. Démocrate et réformiste, Vojislav Kostunica n'a jamais caché son hostilité envers le tribunal de l'ONU, qu'il considère comme une institution «politique» plus que judiciaire. Dans une interview au Herald Tribune, publiée hier, il a redit les mauvaises intentions qu'il porte à son procureur : «Si on veut déstabiliser la situation dans ce pays, on doit se conduire de la façon dont Carla Del Ponte se conduit.»

La plupart des responsables yougoslaves, et avec eux la majorité de la population, estiment que Milosevic doit être jugé en Serbie «pour le mal qu'il a fait aux Serbes». Même Zoran Djindjic, le futur premier ministre serbe, qui s'était montré plus ouvert, a mis en doute hier la solidité de l'acte d'accusation dressé contre Milosevic. «Si le TPI a des preuves, a-t-il dit à l'agence Beta, il devrait les montrer, car ce que j'ai vu en 1999 quand l'acte d'accusation a été dressé n'est qu'un ramassis de spéculations, de coupures de journaux et de oui-dire.» Une aile plus réformiste, notamment au sein du gouvernement serbe, accepterait l'idée de transférer Milosevic et les principaux inculpés serbes à La Haye. Mais ces responsables sont pour l'heure minoritaires. Et ce ne sont pas leurs partisans mais des manifestants nationalistes qui ont accueilli Carla Del Ponte en lui lançant des S.ufs et des pierres et en brandissant ces pancartes : «Dehors, assassins de l'Otan», «Dehors Carla».

Venue à Belgrade tester la volonté de coopération des nouvelles autorités, le procureur du TPI a eu un avant-goût des difficultés qui l'attendent. Mais le manque de collaboration de Belgrade pourrait avant tout pénaliser la Serbie. Tout en sommant Belgrade d'arrêter «immédiatement» Milosevic, le Conseil de l'Europe a rappelé hier qu'une «coopération pleine et entière avec le TPI est l'une des conditions de l'adhésion» de la Yougoslavie au Conseil de l'Europe. Jusqu'à présent «compréhensive» pour laisser le temps aux nouvelles autorités de consolider leur pouvoir à Belgrade, la communauté internationale pourrait décider de durcir le ton. Le gouvernement yougoslave risquerait alors de perdre rapidement le soutien politique et financier qui lui est accordé depuis la chute de Milosevic.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The United Nations chief prosecutor met a wall of resistance yesterday to her demands that Slobodan Milosevic go before the war crimes tribunal at The Hague, with leaders in Belgrade insisting the former president be tried at home.

After meeting with UN chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said most Serbs don't trust the Netherlands-based tribunal and that Mr. Milosevic's trial in Yugoslavia would build people's confidence in the nation's courts.

``The official position of our government is that trials should take place in our country,'' Mr. Svilanovic told Ms. Del Ponte on the second day of her visit to Belgrade, intended to persuade new leadership to hand over Mr. Milosevic and other top war crimes suspects living in Yugoslavia.

Meanwhile, about 200 pro-Milosevic supporters pelted Ms. Del Ponte's motorcade with eggs as it sped from the Foreign Ministry building, splattering some of the vehicles.

Even Serbian Prime Minister-designate Zoran Djindjic, Mr. Milosevic's fiercest rival in the authoritarian president's last years of power, suggested he preferred to try him at home, although he urged ``co-operation'' with UN tribunal.

``In a couple of months, we should invite foreign institutions to assure themselves if our courts are independent and credible enough,'' Mr. Djindjic said after meeting Ms. Del Ponte.

Asked how Ms. Del Ponte reacted, Mr. Djindjic said ``she was not delighted at all because it entails time. She thinks something has to be done now.''

Mr. Djindjic said Ms. Del Ponte's demands that Mr. Milosevic and other suspects from the previous wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo be extradited to The Hague soon ``are unrealistic.''

While most people of Serbia, who comprise more than 90 per cent of the Yugoslav population, have rallied behind the pro-democracy leadership that replaced Mr. Milosevic, feelings against the UN tribunal remain high. Most Serbs consider it biased against them.

The extradition of Mr. Milosevic and several other top suspects -- plus an undisclosed number of Yugoslavs believed charged in the sealed indictments -- has become a key test for the new Yugoslav leadership.

While generally praised by the world as democratic, the new leadership could lose world credibility if it fails to co-operate with The Hague tribunal, hurting its reintegration into European and international bodies.

While most of those indicted are Serbs, the tribunal is also prosecuting Croats and Muslims for war crimes in the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Bosnia. Ms. Del Ponte maintains that any concession to Serbs would mean the court would have to make similar concessions to others.

In the village he is known as Plaku. It means old man. He is 61, but looks older.

His face is all furrows and angles framed by an elegant white handlebar mustache. He wears a black commando beret that gives him the look of a dapper professor. For years he served as secretary of the science faculty at Kosovo's Pristina University.

On March 7, 1999, with the help of two of his sons, he shot dead three Serbian police officers.

The incident was a milestone in the grim escalation of conflict between Kosovo's Serbs and Albanians that culminated in NATO's air war against Yugoslavia. Slobodan Milosevic has been toppled from power, and now the Serbs are all but gone from Kosovo. But for Plaku, the war goes on.

Plaku is a member of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB), an offshoot of the Kosovo Liberation Army that is staging a persistent guerrilla war in the Presevo Valley, just across Kosovo's borders in Serbia proper. Much of the fighting takes place at night and within sniper range of U.S. troops. If left unchecked, this little war could escalate into the next major Balkan headache, and the first for President George W. Bush.

``We've already been fired at,'' said Brig.-Gen. Kenneth Quinlan, commander of the 5,500 U.S. troops in Kosovo. ``The Presevo Valley is a flashpoint for the Balkans. It is my main effort, it is KFOR's main effort ... to keep this from becoming the lighting-rod issue that plunges the region back into violence.''

Plaku and half a dozen other UCPMB fighters, including the local commander, Muhamet Xhemajli, warm themselves around a wood-burning stove in their headquarters in the village of Muhovc.

Most of them are wearing camouflage fatigues with KLA insignia. They have plenty of guns and ammunition. They all have boots of good quality.

Many of the UCPMB's guerrillas are KLA veterans in their 20s and 30s who never laid down their arms after the Kosovo war. Others are recruits from local villages. One knowledgeable civilian source estimates a fighting force of 500 to 800 men. The Serbs say it's more like 2,000 to 3,000 men. Commander Xhemajli enjoys the guessing game; he won't say how many men.

Plaku explains why UCPMB took up arms one year ago.

``The essence of our existence is preventing what happened at Racak. We don't want that repeated,'' he said. Racak is the village in Kosovo where, on Jan. 15, 1999, Serbian police massacred 45 Albanians in retaliation for the killing of two Serbian policemen. The atrocity formed the basis of Milosevic's indictment for war crimes by the Hague tribunal.

The guerrillas' stronghold is the so-called ``ground safety zone'' or GSZ, a

5-kilometre-wide strip that separates the Yugoslav army from KFOR, the NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo. It is dotted with ethnic Albanian villages in which paved roads are scarce and electricity is minimal.

The population is about 70,000, but many of the women and children left the villages early last year after two Albanian woodcutters were killed by Serbian police and the fighting began to escalate. Most have taken shelter with relatives on the Kosovo side of the border. ``Our purpose is to defend the people who remain and create conditions for those who left to come back,'' Plaku said.

no defence from serbs

``Although the international community considers this place a DMZ, they were not able to defend the people here from the Serbs. If we were not here, the same thing that happened in Kosovo would happen here. You know what the Serbs did during the war - they are the same people,'' he said.

For most of the local population, this is a fairly persuasive logic. Even with Milosevic gone and a new, more democratic government in place, there is no trust for the Serbs.

``We should not forget that Serbia had four wars, and as a product of those wars there are people who cannot be controlled by any government. Wars create people who can only sustain themselves by the gun. They cannot go back to normal jobs and normal lives,'' Plaku said.

The border between Kosovo and the GSZ is patrolled by U.S. and Russian troops. In recent weeks they have been clamping down on cross-border traffic, making it difficult to smuggle weapons. They also have been blowing up some of the mountain trails used by smugglers and lighting up the night with flares to discourage the guerrillas' movement.

Xhemajli, the commander, concedes that the U.S. troops are doing a good job sealing the border, but says this has not cut into his weapons supply. ``We buy our weapons from Serbia, from generals who need money,'' he said.

The UCPMB's over-all political goal is to detach their little piece of territory from Serbia and attach it to Kosovo. There appears to be very limited support for this among Kosovo Albanians. There is no support at all within the international community.

The Kosovo Albanian ``leadership understands that this is hurting them with us,'' said a senior Western diplomat in Kosovo.

Xhemajli is not worried. He knows that Western diplomats said the same about the KLA when it began attacking Serb police in 1998. A year later NATO found itself in its first shooting war, with the KLA calling in targets for NATO warplanes.

Even with no international backing, Xhemajli believes the UCPMB can achieve its objective. How? ``With guns,'' he said.

In the Presevo valley there is an oversupply of men with guns. Every hamlet has its armed guards and checkpoints. Along the ridgelines in the hills overlooking Serb positions, Albanians have dug trenches and built bunkers. They have Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, even Sager anti-tank missiles.

Light skirmishes occur almost every day. According to Serbian figures, there were 399 attacks on police between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15 last year. This resulted in the deaths of 11 policemen, nine citizens of unspecified ethnic origin and seven Albanian guerrillas.

Serbs Haven't Taken Bait

``They think that if they can provoke a Serb crackdown, the international community will ride to their rescue,'' said the diplomat. ``But the Serbs cracked the code early on and didn't rise to the bait.''

For the Bush administration, a worst-case scenario would be that the Serbs revert to form and respond to an Albanian provocation with a Racak-style retaliation.

``If the Serbs go in and burn villages, the pressure for KFOR to go in and do something would grow,'' said a Western diplomat. If NATO did respond, it would prove that the hard-liners like Xhemajli and Plaku were right when they gambled that NATO could again be manoeuvred into taking the Albanians' side. If NATO did nothing, most Kosovo Albanians probably would see this as siding with the Serbs and NATO peacekeepers could no longer be assured of their welcome in Kosovo.

SKOPJE, Jan 25 (AFP) - Ethnic Albanian rebels from Kosovo claimed responsibility Thursday for a recent rocket attack on a police station in western Macedonia which left one officer killed and three wounded.

Kosovo Liberation Army "special units attacked with automatic rifles and rocket launchers the Macedonian police station" on Monday in the village of Tearce, near Tetovo, said a statement in Albanian distributed to journalists.

The statement had the Kosovo Liberation army (KLA) insignia and was signed by KLA headquarters.

The attack Monday occurred in a mainly ethnic Albanian-populated area.

The statement hinted of more attacks, saying the "uniform of the Macedonian occupier will be targeted until the Albanian people is free."

It also urged policemen to return to their families and not to "waste their lives for illusory Macedonian plans to dominate the (ethnic) Albanian population."

Ethnic Albanians make up nearly a quarter of Macedonia's population of two million.

The KLA which fought Serb forces in Kosovo in order to wrest independence for the Yugoslav province was disbanded and replaced by the civilian Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) after a 1999 NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

PRISTINA (Yugoslavia), 25 Jan (AFP) - KFOR troops on Thursday detained two alleged members of an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group active in Serbia proper as they tried to cross over into Kosovo, a spokesman for the UN force said.

Shaqir Shaqiri, identified as a spokesman for the guerrillas' political arm, and Blerim Krasniqi, were detained as they tried to cross into Kosovo while avoiding a KFOR checkpoint, said spokesman Captain Richard Kusak.

The two were accompanying an Albanian woman reporter from Voice of America (VOA) as they crossed from the five kilometer (three mile) security along Kosovo's border with Serbia proper.

The detained men were said to be members of the Presevo, Medvedja et Bujanovac Liberation Army (UCPMB), which is seeking to attach the border region around the towns of that name to UN-administered Kosovo

The arrests took place near an authorized crossing point near Mucibaba, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south-east of the Kosovo capital Pristina.

According to sources close to the separatist group, the two men have not been heard from since the incident took place.

However Tahir Dalipi, a member of the political council of the UCPMB, would not confirm that they had been arrested.

The KFOR spokesman said the two men were taken to the prison of Camp Bondsteel, the base situated in the zone under US control. An inquiry is in progress.

The journalist, Linda Karadaku was released immediately after identification, according to KFOR.

BELGRADE, Jan 25 (AFP) - The chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte on Thursday was winding up a tense three-day visit to Belgrade, where Yugoslav officials resisted pressure to hand over suspects to the UN tribunal in The Hague.

Del Ponte met with firm resistance from Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and his allies to demands that war crimes suspect Slobodan Milosevic should appear before the Netherlands-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

"The official position of our government is that trials should take place in our country," Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said after meeting Del Ponte on Wednesday.

But the new Belgrade administration, in power since last October when a popular uprising forced Milosevic to admit his electoral defeat, did show a will for initiating cooperation with the ICTY, still considered as "biased" by many in Serbia.

Yugoslav Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac said that legal obstacles -- concerning legal assistance, extradition and handling of cases before foreign courts -- could be overcome by passing a new law on cooperation with the ICTY.

Key Serbian reformer Zoran Djindjic -- who was set be approved by Serbian parliament as prime minister later Thursday -- indicated that Belgrade would prefer Milosevic and other suspects to be tried at home.

Although he urged cooperation with the ICTY, Djindjic said Del Ponte's expectations that some of the suspects should be handed over to the UN tribunal, were "unrealistic."

"It is too early in our cooperation to know how it will develop," Djindjic said.

However, del Ponte and other ICTY officials have ruled out holding trials for Milosevic and others indicted for war crimes anywhere but in The Hague.

They believe 10 more suspects wanted by the court are living in Serbia, which include former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic and three former Yugoslav army officers involved in the Croatian war.

"We have neither the proper procedures nor clear authority," he said. Belgrade had considered cooperating with the ICTY on the "basis of exchanging information," Djindjic said.

He added del Ponte "was not enthusiastic at all" because Belgrade's demands would take time.

"She thinks something should be done immediately," Djindjic said.

Del Ponte has yet to speak about results of her visit to Belgrade, with her spokeswoman promising a news conference on Thursday.

Her silence over talks with Belgrade officials has prompted speculations of halting the much-needed foreign assistance to the country, with many international figures linking aid to full cooperation with the tribunal in The Hague.

The tribunal's position received support Wednesday from the pan-European human rights body, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which called on Kostunica to hand over Milosevic for trial.

Lord Russell-Johnston, president of its parliamentary assembly, expressed disappointment at Kostunica's reluctance to cooperate.

And the US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said it was too early to assess the visit, noting that the United States "are pleased that the meetings started and took place."

Meanwhile, Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti reported Thursday that the meeting between Kostunica and Del Ponte "was held in an unpleasant atmosphere."

"Instead of talks, Del Ponte got a lecture on Yugoslav and international laws. Kostunica addressed her as his student who is not familiar at all with the matter in question," the daily said, quoting an unnamed source.

It added that, at the end of Tuesday's meeting, Del Ponte "indicated that an agreement could be reached on putting Milosevic to trial in Belgrade, under conditions which should later be discussed."

BERLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, due to visit Moscow next month, said on Thursday the Western alliance was prepared to deepen its ties with Russia in a new move to patch up the strains of the 1999 Kosovo crisis.

``Russians need to understand more clearly that NATO is not, nor does it want to be, any threat to their security,'' Robertson said in a speech to a conservative think-tank in Berlin.

``Russia is coming to realise that NATO is here to stay and that we need to have a modus vivendi with each other.''

Robertson said he hoped his visit to Moscow due in the week beginning February 19 to open a NATO information centre would give him an opportunity to convey a clear message to Russia.

``We are ready to go much further in our cooperation, if you are as well,'' he said.

Robertson said an ``ice age'' in relations experienced between the two former Cold War foes during NATO's air war against Yugoslavia was now over, noting that Russian and NATO troops were serving side-by-side in the Balkans.

Robertson visited Moscow last February to revive ties frozen during NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, which Russia strongly opposed.

Robertson also said he had been reassured by new U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that the United States did not plan a unilateral withdrawal of its troops from the Balkans.

``They take NATO very seriously and their obligations to NATO,'' he said. ``Unilateral withdrawals by any one ally would have profound consequences but luckily that is not going to be a possibility.''

RUSSIAN SUSPICIONS

Russia and NATO had been expected last month to sign a deal allowing the alliance to open the office, but harsh criticism of Moscow's handling of the Chechnya conflict put paid to the plan.

Earlier this month Robertson visited the ex-Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Russia is suspicious of NATO moves into its traditional sphere of influence.

Robertson said a NATO summit likely to be held in 2002 would review the process of NATO enlargement into eastern Europe. It was too early to say what would happen then, he said.

``One thing is clear -- NATO's door will remain open, because ultimately Europe will only be at peace with itself if each state is free to chose where it wants to belong.''

Addressing another likely bone of contention between NATO and Russia in years to come, Robertson said a U.S. plan to introduce a national missile defence against rogue missiles that Moscow rejects was some way from coming to fruition.

``I don't think we are yet in the business of pinning down any of these schemes without a lot of thinking. The Americans want to look at the threats, the technology and the expense before they make a final decisions,'' he said.

Robertson said he hoped all sides could engage in a sensible debate over possible future missile shields and eventually come to a common position. Russia has said a unilateral U.S. shield would threaten the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

SOFIA, Jan 25 (AFP) - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said Thursday that Belgrade wants to cooperate with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal, but insisted Slobodan Milosevic must be tried first at home.

Speaking at the end of a three-day visit to Belgrade by chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, he said holding trials at home would help the country to come to terms with the atrocities committed over the last decade.

"We are interested in cooperating with The Hague tribunal, it is part of our international obligations," he said during a visit to Bulgaria, adding that "the first steps have been taken" during Del Ponte's trip.

But he said: "The framework of this cooperation must be worked out, and Milosevic's extradition is not the only factor."

The first step will be to set up a South Africa-style truth commission "which will present all the information about crimes" committed under the Milosevic regime, in Bosnia, Croatia and elsewhere in ex-Yugoslavia, he said.

The commission's work would be "the start of a process of reconciliation which will last several years." The "next phase" would be to hold trials, he said.

"Holding trials on our own territory will allow public opinion to look the crimes in the face and will be part of building a new judicial system," he told reporters.

Del Ponte, prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), rejected Belgrade's proposal putting Milosevic on trial at home.

"Our jurisdiction (is) war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. For these crimes Milosevic will come to The Hague and be tried there," she said in Belgrade.

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) _ A previously unknown Albanian rebel group claimed responsibility Thursday for a grenade attack on a police station earlier this week that left one officer killed and three others injured.

A note purporting to be from the People's Liberation Army was faxed to Albanian-language and Macedonian media outlets in capital Skopje. It was dated Jan. 22 _ the day when two rocket-propelled grenades slammed into a police station in the predominantly ethnic Albanian village of Tearce in western Macedonia.

``The Macedonian oppressor will be targeted until the Albanian people are liberated,'' read the statement from the group, calling itself Ushtria Clirimtare Kombetare in Albanian.

Macedonian police issued a statement saying it had no knowledge of a group by that name and that it was investigating the origins of the note.

Three people were arrested and warrants were issued against several more in connection with the incident. The police said that a ``group of five to six men ... still on Macedonian territory'' were responsible for the attack but did not reveal their ethnicity or identity of the suspects.

``A special unit of the UCK ... hit Macedonian police in Tearce with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic machinegun fire,'' read the note, also obtained by The Associated Press. ``The enemy was instantly paralyzed.''

The note bore the UCK letterhead and was titled as ``Statement Number 4'' from the group's ``general staff.''

The UCK initials are identical to those of the Kosovo Liberation Army _ Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves _ the Albanian rebels who battled Serb troops in Kosovo, a southern Serbian province bordering Macedonia to the north. When NATO took control of the Serbian province in June 1999, the guerrillas were formally disbanded.

Police sources told The AP that the Albanian text resembled statements from former KLA rebels.

Albanians make up about one fourth of Macedonia's 2 million people. They mostly live in the west of the country and are often accused by the majority Macedonians, who are Slavs, of links with Kosovo-based organized crime. They also openly supported the ethnic Albanian KLA rebels in Kosovo during their war against Serb authorities in Yugoslavia in 1998-99.

Ethnic tensions in Macedonia exist but have not exploded into major violence.

Still police stations, court buildings and railway tracks were also targets in 1997 and 1998 bomb attacks in Macedonia by ethnic Albanian militants.

The note added the Jan. 22 attack had been ``limited,'' with the purpose to ``warn Macedonian occupiers and their Albanian collaborators''

It called on Macedonian police to hand over their weapons, go back to their families and ``not sacrifice their lives in vain for Macedonian plans of dominance.''

After the Monday blast, which officials called a ``terrorist act,'' police sealed off the village, 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of Skopje, and searched it house-to-house.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) Ethnic Albanian militants opened fire on Yugoslav army units just outside Kosovo province on Wednesday but caused no injuries, a Yugoslav government statement said.

The shooting was the latest attack by the armed rebels fighting for control of the region, populated mostly by ethnic Albanians.

According to the government-run press center in the region, the shooting occurred near the village of Veliki Trnovac. The area lies inside a three-mile buffer zone between Kosovo run by the United Nations and the NATO-led peace force and the rest of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic.

``Soldiers returned fire,'' the terse statement said. It gave few details.

Earlier Wednesday, in a separate attack, Albanian rebels opened sniper fire on police positions in the nearby village of Lucane. A house was also hit with a rifle grenade, but no casualties were reported, an official statement said.

The buffer zone was established in the 1999 Kosovo peace deal, which was agreed to after NATO bombing forced then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to halt a bloody crackdown in the province. The Yugoslav army is banned from entering the strip of land but has been deployed on its edges to try and contain the new ethnic Albanian rebel movement.

Most rebel attacks so far have targeted Serbian police, who are allowed to operate inside the zone.

BERLIN (AP) _ NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson issued reassurances Thursday that there is no proof depleted uranium ammunition poses health risks and repeated his pledges to make all information on the controversial ordnance public.

``The data from the countries who are involved in peacekeeping is universally very clear _ that is, that no scientific connection can be proved between illnesses that have been contracted and service in the Balkans,'' Robertson said after meeting in Berlin with German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping.

``I ask people to look at the science, look at the evidence ... listen to that, rather than the somewhat exaggerated comments made because the word 'uranium' happens to be involved.''

``But the conclusion is that there's no proven connection'' between the ammunition and reported cases of cancer in former peacekeeping troops in the Balkans, he said.

The United States used the armor-piercing depleted uranium rounds during campaigns to stop fighting across the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

``We are not hiding anything, and as information becomes available then we will disclose it and we will explain it,'' Robertson said. ``If it is disturbing or it is puzzling, then we will take appropriate action.''

Several nations including Germany have also said no health risk has been proven from the ammunition, but have nonetheless instituted test programs for soldiers. NATO said Wednesday that its special committee on depleted uranium still has found no link between it and cancer.

Robertson also issued assurances about the new U.S. administration's intentions in the Balkans, in an attempt to dispel worries after pre-election talk of an American withdrawal from Bosnia and Kosovo.

But Robertson said both new U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told him Washington wants to remain involved in the region.

``What they've done is to assure me privately, as indeed they have insured the world publicly, that they're not going to cut and run from the Balkans,'' he said. ``They will look at their own troop contribution with other members of the alliance and no precipitous decisions will be taken.''

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) _ Police have arrested three people and issued arrest warrants against several more in connection with a grenade attack on a police station earlier this week that killed one officer and injured three, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Antonio Miloski said that the attack Monday in the ethnic Albanian village of Tearce was carried out by a ``group of five to six men who are still on the territory of Macedonia.''

Miloski refused to reveal the ethnicity or identity of the suspects, citing possible harm to the ongoing investigation. He reiterated that the attack in Tearce, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the capital Skopje, was a ``terrorist act.''

Two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the station in Tearce. One of the grenades blasted through the station's window, instantly killing an officer who was on duty and injuring three of his colleagues, one critically. After the blast, the assailants fired several machine-gun bursts before fleeing.

Ethnic Albanian political parties in Macedonia protested what they called ``police brutality'' during the raids and searches that followed the attack.

``We are particularly irritated by the brutality during the detentions of those suspected by police of involvement in the (Tearce) case,'' said ethnic Albanian leader Mehi Nesimi.''We demand that the police immediately stop the harassment of innocent people.''

Ethnic Albanians make up about one fourth of Macedonia's 2 million people. They mostly live in the west of the Macedonia and are often accused by the majority Slavs of links with Kosovo-based organized crime. Ethnic tensions in Macedonia are lingering, but have not exploded into major violence.

Nesimi alleged that police mostly target the ethnic Albanians who are known to have supported the Kosovo rebels during their war against Serb authorities in Yugoslavia in 1998-99.

``We are warning the government not to blame the Albanians for everything that is going on,'' said Nesimi. The government denied the accusations.

The United Nations chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, has expressed disappointment at the end of her visit to Belgrade.

Her talks with Yugoslav and Serbian leaders had been aimed at bringing to the Hague tribunal past leaders indicted for war crimes -- among them the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic.

She was especially critical of his successor, Vojislav Kostunica, saying dialogue with him had been practically impossible.

Mrs Del Ponte said meetings with the new Serbian leaders had been more positive, and that she would not give up demanding that war crimes suspects be handed over.

The authorities in Belgrade, however, insist that any trials must take place in Yugoslavia. A BBC correspondent in Belgrade says that although the two sides appear to be nowhere near an agreement, the visit may have the basis for future cooperation.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

The United Nations war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte will break her silence later on Thursday about her negotiations on a stormy trip to Belgrade.

Mrs Del Ponte refused to give any comment after meetings with Yugoslav ministers on Wednesday and with President Vojislav Kostunica on Tuesday, in which she discussed Belgrade's co-operation with the UN war crimes tribunal.

Mr Kostunica and his ministers have refused to concede to Mrs Del Ponte's demands that indicted war criminals, including ex-President Slobodan Milosevic, should be extradited to face trial at the tribunal in The Hague.

Foreign Minister, Goran Svilanovic, said after talks with Mrs Del Ponte that any war crimes trials "should take place on the territory of our country".

Mrs Del Ponte was met by angry protests by supporters of Mr Milosevic as she arrived for meetings with the foreign, justice and interior ministers on Wednesday.

Protesters shouted "We're not going to give you Slobo, we're not going to give anyone!" and threw eggs at her car, parked outside the foreign ministry.

International reaction

The United States has said it was pleased that Mrs Del Ponte had met Yugoslav officials.

A spokesman for the US State Department said that the proceedings of the trials had to be worked out between Yugoslavia and the tribunal, but said the US would support the tribunal's position.

However in Strasbourg on Wednesday, the Council of Europe warned that Yugoslavia would only be considered for full membership if it co-operated with the tribunal.

The Yugoslav Government is also likely to lose international political and financial support garnered after Mr Milosevic's ousting in October if it rejects the tribunal's requests for help.

Talks between Mrs Del Ponte and Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica came to an angry and abrupt end on Tuesday.

Mr Kostunica expressed strong opposition to the tribunal's use of sealed indictments - in which the identity of the accused is kept secret to prevent him or her evading arrest.

On Wednesday Mrs Del Ponte delivered an arrest warrant to ministers for an individual indicted in this way.

Mr Kostunica warned that handing over indicted war criminals could destabilise the new democracy in Yugoslavia and warned against what he described as "selective justice".

Many Serbs feel that the international court pursues Serb suspects with more vigour than it investigates other groups in the Balkans.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Europe's human rights body has urged Belgrade to co-operate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

The Council of Europe's Secretary-General, Walter Schwimmer, said on Thursday that Yugoslavia would be denied membership in the organisation unless it co-operates fully with the criminal tribunal.

His comments came as United Nations chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte met a wall of resistance from Belgrade to her demand that Slobodan Milosevic be extradited to face a war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

A day after her apparently heated discussion with President Vojislav Kostunica on the issue, senior government figures told Del Ponte the former leader should be tried in Yugoslavia.

She is expected to give a news conference later on Thursday, breaking the public silence she has kept during her trip, aimed at persuading the leadership to hand over Milosevic and other war crimes suspects.

Schwimmer told CNN that the Council of Europe would assist Yugoslavia if it co-operated.

"There will be some transition period. Yugoslavia can change its legislation and we will assist Yugoslavia in this difficult process, including changes to Yugoslavia's legislation to make it possible that Yugoslavia co-operates with the war crimes tribunal," he said.

But Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic made clear the government's preference for a trial in Yugoslavia, saying most Serbs do not trust the Netherlands-based tribunal.

"I explained that the official position of the government was that a trial should take place on our territory," he said after meeting Del Ponte.

Even Serbian Prime Minister-designate Zoran Djindjic, Milosevic's fiercest rival in the last years of his leadership, suggested he would prefer to try him at home, although he urged "co-operation" with the tribunal.

"In a couple of months we should invite foreign institutions to assure themselves if our courts are independent and credible enough," Djindjic said, following talks with Del Ponte.

He admitted the prosecutor had been "not delighted" at the suggestion but called her expectations "unrealistic".

Kostunica himself said in an interview published on Wednesday that handing over Milosevic, who remains a free man and is still living in Belgrade, could destabilise Yugoslavia.

"If one wants to destabilise the situation in this country, one might behave the way Carla Del Ponte behaves," he was quoted as saying by the International Herald Tribune.

The tribunal believes that a total of 15 of the 27 suspects publicly indicted, but still free, remain at large in Serbia, the dominant republic in Yugoslavia's two-member federation.

While most people of Serbia have rallied behind the pro-democracy leadership which ousted Milosevic in October, feeling against the U.N. tribunal remains high with many Serbs considering it biased against them.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report

Eighteen months after the end of the Kosovo war, the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague has yet to indict any Serbs who actively committed crimes against the province's Albanian population.

So far indictments have only been issued against those who allegedly ordered atrocities.

"I know the tribunal is eager to convict the so-called 'big fish', but I think, especially in Kosovo's case, people who actually carried out the crimes should not be allowed to evade justice, as most were local citizens, some of them neighbours of the people they persecuted," said Kosovare Kelmendi, of the Fund for Humanitarian Justice, which provided the tribunal with testimonies of crimes committed during the war.

Kelmendi and other activists point out that in Bosnia both those who ordered and perpetrated crimes have been indicted.

To date, only former president Slobodan Milosevic and five senior federal officials - Milan Milutinovic, Nikola Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic and Veljko Stojiljkovic - have been indicted for crimes committed in Kosovo

The court's failure to bring the actual killers to justice has disappointed victims' families and threatens to undermine stability in the province.

Vjosa, an Albanian from Gjakova, said, "People who lost many members of their families are so tired of waiting for justice, there's a danger they may take justice into their own hands."

Critics of the tribunal also complain that it has focussed only on the exhumation of mass graves, but Hague officials point out that this is a vital part of building cases against suspects.

"We understand why people are frustrated," said tribunal investigator Steve Leach. "But we are doing our best to conduct efficient and fair investigations. There will be arrests but we have to be patient."

According to tribunal data, some 4,000 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves to date and local human rights activists say there is already enough evidence to arrest Serb war crimes suspects.

In her high-profile visit to Kosovo last summer, tribunal chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said the list of Serb suspects would be extended. She also said some members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, would be investigated for alleged crimes. She mentioned they were being linked to five specific cases, but refused to say more.

Following her remarks, former leaders of the now disbanded KLA told the Pristina media that the KLA had committed no war crimes. They said it had merely protected the Albanian population - and that the tribunal was free to conduct an investigation into their activities.

Critics of the tribunal, meanwhile, have expressed concern over the large number of Serb war crimes suspects who've fled local jails.

In one incident last year, twenty-five Serbs accused of war crimes escaped from Mitrovica prison, in the northern Serbian-held part of the divided town.

Human rights activists say the prison escapes strengthen their demands for suspects to be sent for trial in The Hague.

"War crimes suspects should be tried at the international tribunal or alternatively the The Hague should be allowed to conduct trials in Kosovo," said Kelmendi.

There's also anger at the tribunal's failure to charge Serbian officials responsible for the alleged Dubrava prison massacre, where Serb paramilitaries and prisoners are said to have killed at least 200 Albanian inmates.

Dubrava prison was a Serb military base and was targeted by NATO planes. During the alliance's air campaign, 1,000 Albanian prisoners were brought to the jail from prisons in Serbia.

According to official accounts of the Albanian prison deaths, 19 workers and prisoners died from NATO bombs. However, survivors claim approximately 200 Albanian prisoners were murdered by guards, paramilitaries and Serb inmates.

Human rights activists say Serbia's former justice minister, Dragoljub Jankovic, who was responsible for prisons, should be held responsible for the alleged massacre.

Despite the criticism leveled against it, Leach insists the tribunal is making good progress in Kosovo. "The investigations are being conducted professionally," he said. "Of course we want to arrest suspects but it's crucial that we have strong evidence."

Few in Kosovo question the commitment of the tribunal to bringing war criminals to justice, they are simply frustrated at the pace of the judicial process.

Valbona Mehmeti is a journalist with the Albanian daily Koha Ditore.

IWPR - 24 January, 2001

Tirana seems to have diffused nationalist protests in Kosovo and Albania over its restoration of diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia.

Kosovo leaders had seen the renewal of ties as a betrayal. Their grievances were then exploited by the Albanian opposition.

The nationalist protests, however, eased following talks between Albania's Deputy Foreign Minister Pellumb Xhufti and Kosovo Albanian leaders in Pristina.

Tirana appears to have persuaded Kosovar leaders that far from abandoning Kosovo, it was attempting to establish a sound basis for the province's campaign for independence.

Diplomatic ties between the two countries were re-established on January 17, five days after an approach from Belgrade, an Albanian foreign ministry statement said.

Links were severed in March 1999 by the Yugoslav government over Albania's support of the NATO bombing campaign.

In restoring diplomatic relations, the Albanian government implicitly accepts United Nations Resolution 1244, which recognises Kosovo as a province of Serbia - hence the hostile reception to the news from Kosovo Albanian politicians intent on pushing for independence for the province.

Xhufti's visit to Pristina appears to have smoothed ruffled feathers. A few days later, Ramush Haradinaj, leader of the Alliance for Kosovo's Future, said on Voice of America radio that he supported Tirana's decision and believed the move would prove to be positive for Kosovo Albanians.

Tirana's representatives in Belgrade will provide Kosovo Albanians with a voice in the Yugoslav capital to both remind the new authorities there of the numerous problems yet to be resolved in the province and provide valuable insights into what the Yugoslav authorities intend to do with it.

A pressing issue is the fate of Kosovo Albanian prisoners currently held in Serbian jails. The Kosovars are demanding their release, but no political party from Pristina dares to talk to Belgrade on this or any other matter ahead of the general elections expected later this year.

An Albanian foreign ministry statement on January 21 confirming the re-establishment of diplomatic relations said, "The Albanian government has made clear that the release of Kosovar political prisoners and the [fate] of the missing from the conflict in Kosova are issues of special importance, which the new Belgrade authorities should treat as a priority and in a democratic way."

Eager to exploit the Albanian government's discomfiture immediately after the restoration of diplomatic relations, the country's opposition politicians joined Kosovo Albanians in denouncing the move as "too hasty".

The main opposition party, former President Sali Berisha's Democrats, said the government should have attached preconditions to any agreement with Belgrade.

Berisha repeated the old accusation that the ruling Socialists were "linked" to Belgrade and did not enjoy the support of Kosovo Albanians.

The hostility aroused by the decision exposed a lack of coordination within the Albanian government. Conflicting reports and comments called into question whether ties had in fact been re-established or were simply under discussion.

On January 22, the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Sabri Godo, said in a television interview he would need to seek clarification from the foreign minister.

"I am not clear if relations were re-established or only the talks to re-establish them were started," Godo told Television Arberia. "The latter would be the right course of action at the moment."

This appeared to contradict both the foreign ministry statement from the day before and comments from United Nations Balkans envoy Carl Bildt that Tirana re-established relations the previous week.

Albanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sokol Gjoka attempted to shed more light on matters saying, "there's no confusion". Tirana had responded positively to an approach from Belgrade on January 17, he said, "but of course there are procedures to follow."

Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo said he had consulted with Western governments, especially the United States, before coming to agreement with the Yugoslav authorities.

The situation was further confused by conflicting reports that Socialist leader Fatos Nano had met Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica during his recent trip to Athens.

In 1997, Nano seriously undermined his own credibility at home and among Kosovo Albanians when he met former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in Crete.

Clearly worried that a meeting with Kostunica could also prove damaging, Nano's spokesman immediately denied the reports. The following day, however, Greek media reported Nano had met Yugoslav Federal Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic in an Athens hotel.

Finally, on his return to Tirana, Nano said he had met Kostunica and Svilanovic in the Greek capital and had discussed the fate of Kosovo Albanian prisoners, the "disappeared" and the "democratic and peaceful development of the Balkans".

Nano's actions are not expected win him suppport in Albania or Kosovo, but could bolster his standing in the West. He met US Ambassador Joseph Limprecht on his return to Tirana, an indication Washington approved of decision to meet Kostunica.

Llazar Semini is co-ordinator for IWPR in Tirana and former project editor in Pristina.

The war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, abruptly ended her hour-long talks with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica yesterday, January 23, after he reportedly refused to extradite his predecessor to The Hague.

Kostunica is said to have delivered well-rehearsed objections to the tribunal process during his meeting with Del Ponte.

The Yugoslav president reportedly told the war crimes prosecutor that he considered her court anti-Serbian and politically manipulated by the United States. He also apparently cited a clause of the Yugoslav constitution prohibiting the extradition of citizens, to counter demands for Milosevic's extradition.

After storming out of her meeting with Kostunica, Del Ponte refused to speak to the media.

She is now due to meet other top Yugoslav officials, including Federal Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac, Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and Federal Police Minister Zoran Zivkovic.

Del Ponte had come to Belgrade to lobby for the extradition of Milosevic and to try to persuade the Yugoslav authorities to adopt a more cooperative approach to the tribunal. Although Kostunica's stance was known ahead of his meeting with the prosecutor, senior sources within the Yugoslav army told IWPR that the president had put Milosevic under house arrest before Del Ponte's arrival, in what appeared to be a conciliatory gesture to the tribunal.

The sources claim Milosevic has been moved from his luxury home at 22 Tolstoy street, in the posh Belgrade suburb of Dedinje, down the road to No. 4, a villa owned by the army's counter intelligence services. He is under 24-hour guard by elite Yugoslav troops.

Kostunica, the sources claim, informed Milosevic of the move during their controversial meeting ten days ago.

Serbia's new interior minister, Dusan Mihajlovic, said the public had a right to know Milosevic's whereabouts at all times given the former president had a tribunal warrant for his arrest and was under investigation in Yugoslavia for corruption and abuse of power.

The president's refusal to meet tribunal demands was applauded throughout Serbia last night, especially by Milosevic's party, the Socialist Party of Serbia. Yugoslavs are opposed to the extradition of their former leader because they regard the tribunal as anti-Serb. They would prefer to see him tried in Belgrade for crimes against the Serbian people.

Belgrade's new authorities reflect the popular mood. They agree that Milosevic should not be sent to The Hague, but their consensus then breaks down.

One camp argues he should be tried only for corruption and crimes against the Serbian people. The other asserts he should be tried for war crimes, but in Belgrade.

Meanwhile, the international community has set March 31 as the deadline for Milosevic's extradition to The Hague. Should Belgrade fail to comply, it faces being deprived of foreign financial aid, essential to the country's reconstruction and economic recovery.

Momcilo Grubac had lobbied for cooperation with the tribunal and had called for the government to come up with a common position ahead of Del Ponte's visit. No such united line emerged.

Federal Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic advocated that Milosevic be tried by the tribunal in Belgrade.

"It is possible that Milosevic will be brought before the Yugoslav courts in cooperation with The Hague," he said. This so far is the furthest the Belgrade leadership is prepared to go to accommodate The Hague court.

Svilanovic's comments provoked a sharp response from Federal Prime Minister Zoran Zizic - until recently a Milosevic ally and a staunch opponent of the tribunal. "We shall only cooperate with The Hague to exchange material evidence, but will aim to preserve national dignity and state interest," he said.

The opening of a tribunal office in Belgrade "does not automatically mean the acceptance of all its requests," Zizic added.

The United States Senator Joseph Bidden, on meeting Kostunica earlier this month, had suggested the Yugoslav president was moving towards a compromise position, which could see Milosevic on trial before a tribunal court in Belgrade.

The conflicting views among Serbia's top politicians explain Del Ponte's decision to meet several leading figures during her visit.

Sources close to Kostunica claim he initially refused to meet Del Ponte because she had specifically ruled out the possibility of Milosevic being tried anywhere other than The Hague. It was the pressure from his coalition partners which forced Kostunica to change his mind.

Kostunica's coalition partner and rival, Djindjic seized on the president's initial refusal to meet Del Ponte as an opportunity to appear more pragmatic, saying he would meet the chief prosecutor instead.

Del Ponte is to meet Djindjic today but he is no more likely to support Milosevic's extradition than his rival. The prime minister faces a practical problem. The former president's appearance at The Hague would almost inevitably lead to the extradition of several top military and police officials.

Many of these officials, especially within the police, played a crucial role in Milosevic's downfall on October 5 and are now very close to Djindjic.

In an interview in the Belgrade magazine NIN in December, Djindjic said he "was pretty sure a majority" of the senior police officials who helped him in October are on The Hague's list of indictees. "But I would rather withdraw from politics than extradite them to The Hague," he said.

Del Ponte had announced prior to her visit that as a sign of good will she would inform Kostunica of the identity of up to five out of an unknown number of Yugoslav citizens named in sealed tribunal indictments.

When their talks failed, The Hague prosecutor refrained from handing the envelope to the president, which he had vowed to make public. She has instead signalled that it may end up in hands of the federal minister of justice.

Besides the Milosevic question, Del Ponte has several other matters she plans to discuss with Serbian officials, the results of which should be made public during her press conference on Thursday.

Five top Yugoslav officials were indicted along with Milosevic in May 1999. There is also the question of the so-called "Vukovar Three", Yugoslav army officers indicted for crimes in Croatia in 1991. And of course there are the 17 indicted Bosnian Serb officials the tribunal suspects are hiding in Serbia.

Many observers in Belgrade believe extradition of the "Vukovar Three", namely Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic, and Miroslav Radic, could be Del Ponte's first request. This may provide an opportunity for Serbian politicians to demonstrate their commitment to cooperation with the tribunal.

What's clear however is that the Serbian authorities need more time to consolidate their power and to bring a divided public around to accepting that cooperation with the war crimes tribunal is inevitable.

Zeljko Cvijanovic is a regular IWPR contributor

Pristina (dpa) - The chief of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup, said that Serbia has no say in the creation of the legal framework which will define Kosovo's status of substantial autonomy and provide the basis for the province's future governing bodies.

``Serbia has no role in creating the legal framework, because that's in (U.N. Security Council Resolution) 1244,'' Haekkerup told journalists in Pristina. ``In the end, I will be the one to make the final decision on the legal framework.''

The new U.N. administrator in the province, who took over from Frenchman Bernard Kouchner in mid-January, repeated Thursday that his main task as UNMIK chief in Kosovo is to speed up work on creating the legal framework before holding Kosovo-wide elections.

But Haekkerup, a Danish national, also stressed in his first press conference that establishing direct links with the Belgrade authorities through the opening of an UNMIK office in Yugoslavia's capital is high on his agenda.

``This is not a change in UNMIK policy,'' he said, adding that such an office would help ``to sort out questions that effect day-to-day life in Kosovo'', such as missing persons, electricity, property questions and issues associated with the economy.

Belgrade (dpa) - The controversial chief of the Serbian secret police Radomir Markovic resigned Thursday, the Beta news agency said, quoting sources.

Markovic reportedly sent a letter of resignation to the presidents of Yugoslavia and Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica and Milan Milutinovic, designated Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic and his deputy in charge of the interior ministry, Dusan Mihajlovic.

According to the source, Markovic offered his resignation last October following the fall of Slobodan Milosevic from power, but was told to remain in office until early elections produced a new Serbian government.

Secret police documents leaked to the media implied Markovic in the 1999 killing of independent journalist and publisher Slavko Curuvija.

Following those reports, a row erupted between Kostunica and other Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) leaders, but it was suppressed ahead of Serbian parliamentary elections on December 23.

DOS convincingly won at the elections, gaining a two-thirds majority in the parliament, and now controls all levels of government in Serbia and the Yugoslav federation.

Belgrade (dpa) - The Yugoslav Army (VJ) said Thursday that it held an expert conference devoted to relations of Yugoslavia and the NATO-sponsored Partnership for Peace programme.

In a brief statement, it said the Yugoslav deputy premier in charge of foreign economic relations Miroljub Labus and top government and military officials took part in the Belgrade meeting on Wednesday.

NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days in 1999, forcing it to withdraw its security forces from Kosovo.

Since the Democratic Opposition of Serbia group toppled the autocratic Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in October, several officials have said that Belgrade should join Partnership for Peace.

General Staff Nebojsa Pavkovic, chief of the VJ, said in an interview last week that membership in the programme is a political decision that the military would not oppose.

Belgrade (dpa) - Designated Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on Thursday welcomed the election of the first democratically chosen parliament in more than 60 years and pledged massive legal and economic reforms.

Presenting his programme ahead of the vote that would approve him and his cabinet of seven deputy premiers and 16 ministers later in the session, he said his ``government has great intentions'', promising legal and economic reforms.

``We have a chance to be remembered as the generation that returned Serbia from the bottom to where it belongs'', he said.

He also stressed that a democratic Serbia enjoys a much more favourable international status and indicated that it would move to use it, politically and economically. He blamed the former authorities for a decade of decline.

``Serbia was at the mercy of brutal interest groups in and out of the country. But that is now finished,'' Djindjic said. ``We won the mandate to change that on the streets on October 5.''

He was referring to massive protests that forced then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to accept electoral defeat.

Djindjic pledged that his government would ``part with the past'', politically stabilize the country and implement legal reforms to create a favourable investment environment during its four-year term.

``Our goal is a controlled, glass-transparent government,'' he said.

Djindjic acknowledged that his government ``faces the greatest problems in the economy'', with an official unemployment rate of about 27 per cent on top of hundreds of thousands of people working in companies that are de facto bankrupt.

``Reforms cannot wait, but they do not depend only on our will and determination,'' he said.

``We need a 'New Deal', an exceptional development through large investments,'' he said, outlining his economic policy.

He also said that people who had ordered atrocities, ``the killing of women and children'' in the wars fought in the previous decade would be held responsible.

``We do not want to bear the collective guilt for them,'' Djindjic said.

The prime minister has sent a message to Kosovo Albanians, saying that ``circumstances have changed'' and that they would ``find their interest only in cooperation with Serbia and through Serbia''.

``There is no more support for any policy in the region as long as it is against (the regime in) Serbia,'' he added. ``Serbia is again becoming the locomotive of the Balkans.''

The new government would seek to solve the southern Serbia crisis by ``offering integration to moderate Albanians... but fighting terrorism as any democratic country does''.

Djindjic warned former and future officials that they would lose privileges: ``A pensioned president is a pensioner, not somebody with the right to houses, guards and maids.''

In his words, the government would denationalize assets taken by the communists in 1945, including real estate belonging to the Serbian royal family.

Djindjic explained that there was not enough money to pay everybody, but pledged to offer some compensation through privatization.

Djindjic was proposed and backed by the Democratic Opposition of Serbia group, which has a two-thirds majority with 176 out of 250 seats in the parliament.

Belgrade (dpa) - The International War Crimes Tribunal chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, said Thursday she was leaving Belgrade with ``mixed feelings''.

She was disappointed after talks with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, but ``cautiously hopeful'' after meeting future Serbian government officials.

In her words, ousted president Slobodan Milosevic would eventually have to face justice in The Hague, to answer genocide and crimes against humanity charges.

But del Ponte said that while she had hoped for a ``meaningful dialogue'' with Kostunica on cooperation, she instead had to listen to ``nothing but complaints about the Hague tribunal'' and a lecture on international and domestic laws.

``President Kostunica will have to change his position,'' she said at a press conference at the end of her three-day visit.

``At the end of the day, Yugoslavia will have to fully cooperate with the tribunal if it wants to become a full member of the international community.''

But talks with other - particularly Serbian - officials gave hope that obstacles would be removed to Belgrade's cooperation with the tribunal, especially regarding extradition of indictees, she said.

Del Ponte confirmed that the extradition of people responsible for crimes is her priority: ``I want those most responsible brought to justice, but I cannot do this alone, I must rely on cooperation from states.''

Kostunica continues to oppose extraditions, saying that national laws prohibit them - but del Ponte quoted designated Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic as promising to lift the barrier as soon as the new authorities consolidate themselves.

Djindjic and his cabinet are due to be inaugurated later Thursday. During her visit, del Ponte pushed for the arrest of the Bosnian Serb wartime military leader Ratko Mladic and former Yugoslav National Army officers indicted for the 1991 attack on the Croatian city of Vukovar.

She confirmed that she handed two sealed indictments to officials in Belgrade.

Del Ponte acknowledged that she is most interested in trying people from the ``top of the chain in command'' in Belgrade - Milosevic and four of his close allies, including the current Serbian President Milan Milutinovic.

In her words, Yugoslavia may try Milosevic for any crimes, but ``he will come to The Hague to answer for genocide and crimes against humanity charges''.

Belgrade officials have been pushing for a home trial of Milosevic, who also faces possible criminal charges for embezzlement, abuse of authority and illegal building.

Rejecting the notion of collective guilt, del Ponte said she wants ``to help Serbia in bringing individuals responsible for crimes to justice''.

Del Ponte positively estimated the outlook for cooperation in many spheres, concretely the opening of the tribunal's office in Belgrade and its access to victims of war crimes.

BELGRADE, January 24 (Itar-Tass) - It takes much time to eliminate the ecological consequences of NATO's air strikes on Yugoslav chemical enterprises and the international community should provide funding to cope with them, the non-governmental organisation Eco-centre said on Monday.

According to independent environmentalists, NATO delivered 50 percent of their strikes on oil refinery plants, petrol states and chemical enterprises in Novi Sad, Pancevo, Kraguevec and other cities.

Under the programme, the United Nations should provide 4.5 million U.S. dollars in order to clean the large part of territory in Novi Sad from oil. "But there is no money, and the oil goes to the underground waters in the Danube-Tisza-Danube channel which poses a threat to 300,000 residents of the city because they can have no drinking water," professor in Novi Sad University Slobodan Sokolovic said.

Eco-centre director Vukasin Pavlovic believes that the international military law should be reviewed due to the consequences of NATO's bombings on Yugoslav chemical enterprises.

MOSCOW, January 25 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev said on Thursday no cases of leukemia had been exposed among Russian servicemen who served in Kosovo or Bosnia.

Medical checkup of the peacekeepers is continuing, Sergeyev told reporters.

Head of the medical service of Russia's airborne troops Colonel Andrei Goryachev told Itar-Tass some 80 percent of Russian peacekeepers in Kosovo and Bosnia had been checked for leukemia, including those who had already returned home from the Balkans.

"According to medical tests, there are no servicemen suffering from blood diseases," Goryachev said, adding that preliminary results of the entire examination are expected by January 31.

"If servicemen have complaints, we examine them. In general, tests do not reveal anything. In case of any changes in the blood, we send the patient for a thorough medical check.

Goryachev denied earlier Russian media reports alleging that a Russian peacekeeper who returned from Kosovo was suffering from leukemia.

One member of the Russian force employed as a cook at the Russian peacekeeping compound in Kosovo has been diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Igor Dolgoi arrived in Kosovo in the summer of 1999 and last February was sent back to Russia for treatment at the Vishenevsky and Burdenko military hospitals.

If the diagnosis of lymphatic cancer is confirmed, specialists will establish the cause of the disease and whether it was related to military service in the Balkans, Goryachev said.

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 25 (Reuters) - NATO-led peacekeepers said on Thursday they had detained three Kosovo Albanians, including a journalist and a spokesman for a guerrilla group, for attempting to enter Kosovo illegally.

Shaqir Shaqiri, spokesman for the political wing of an ethnic Albanian guerrilla force, another man and Voice of America reporter Linda Karadaku were detained on the boundary between Kosovo and a volatile region of southern Serbia.

They had tried to enter the province on Wednesday afternoon from a small road without a regular military checkpoint, Major Steve Shappell, a spokesman for the NATO-led KFOR force, said.

On Wednesday the Presevo Valley area on the Serbian side of the boundary was the scene of another outbreak of the sporadic fighting between the guerrillas and Serb security forces that began around a year ago.

Representatives of both sides said two people had been wounded in the latest clashes.

KFOR said it had detained the two men on the boundary because they were suspected of being members of an ethnic Albanian armed group. They would be held at a U.S. military base pending an investigation. Karadaku was released.

The three apparently came from a five-km (three-mile) wide buffer zone on the Serbian side of the boundary created as part of a deal that ended the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia and governed withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo.

Peacekeepers have patrolled the boundary more vigorously in recent months, detaining numerous ethnic Albanians suspected of being guerrillas crossing back and forth.

The increase in patrols followed complaints from the Belgrade government that guerrillas were still getting through and firing on Serbian police from inside the zone.

The guerrillas say they are defending local ethnic Albanians from Serbian police persecution. Serbian authorities say the group is a collection of separatist terrorists who want to join the Presevo Valley onto ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo.

BELGRADE, Jan 25 (Reuters) - War crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said on Thursday she had been disappointed by talks with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica but was more hopeful after talking to other officials that Belgrade would work with her.

``I was somewhat disappointed because I just had to listen for half an hour,'' del Ponte, concluding a three-day visit to Yugoslavia, said of Tuesday's meeting with Kostunica.

``I then tried to come to a dialogue but it was practically not possible,'' said del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. But she added: ``Other meetings were completely positive.''

She said the tribunal should deal with former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who has been indicted by the U.N. court on Kosovo war crimes charges, before any local trials on other charges.

She said the question of whether Yugoslav authorities would actually hand over war crimes suspects to the tribunal remained completely open after her discussions but she was confident Milosevic would end up in the dock in The Hague.

GENEVA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - European Commission President Romano Prodi said on Thursday he was opposed to linking aid for the new Yugoslav administration to its readiness to hand over former leader Slobodan Milosevic for trial in the Hague.

He told a news conference he had ``full confidence'' in Yugoslavia's elected President Vojislav Kostunica to build a real democratic society in the country.

``I don't make any conditions to Kostunica. I have a strong belief in the need to give time to democracy,'' the former Italian prime minister declared.

He was speaking after Kostunica had effectively rejected a request from Carla del Ponte, the Swiss chief prosecutor of the United Nations war tribunal based in the Dutch capital, for Milosevic and other indictees on war crimes to be handed over.

During a meeting with del Ponte in Belgrade on Thursday, the Yugoslav leader also fiercely criticised the tribunal, declaring it was ``politicised'' and suggesting it was biased against Serbs.

Some Western politicians have said help to the new Belgrade administration to rebuild the country after a decade of U.N. sanctions and last year's bombing by NATO forces should be tied to the question of war criminals.

Asked for his views on Kostunica's stance, Prodi said he was ``really behind his efforts to build a fully-fledged democracy....

``This needs time, and he must have his people with him,'' Prodi declared.

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Serb security forces clashed on Wednesday in the volatile Presevo Valley region of southern Serbia and each side blamed the other for starting the fighting.

The exchanges were the latest in a string of sporadic clashes which have broken out over the past year in or around a buffer zone next to the Kosovo boundary, prompting fears among Western and local officials that the violence could escalate.

Wednesday's clashes appeared to be the most serious fighting in the area since last November, when four Serb police were killed.

Both Serb and Albanian sources said the first clash broke out in the afternoon in the village of Veliki Trnovac and that two ethnic Albanians had been wounded.

The government press centre in the nearby town of Bujanovac said gunmen with automatic weapons opened fire on Yugoslav army positions.

But a member of the guerrillas' political wing said Serb forces had launched an attack with 120 millimetre rounds of ammunition.

The strength of the Albanian attack forced police to pull back 150 metres from a checkpoint on the Bujanovac-Veliki Trnovac road, the press centre said.

Beta news agency quoted Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic as saying that two Albanians had been injured. Tahir Dalipi, a member of the political council which backs the guerrillas, said the two were civilians.

``When you have two opposing sides very close to each other, it's very easy to come to clashes,'' Dalipi said.

``This is another warning, especially for the international community, to deal seriously with the issue of the Presevo Valley,'' he told Reuters by telephone.

Dalipi and a report on Serbian state television both said the second clash broke out on the village of Lucane. Dalipi said the fighting ended around 6 p.m. (1700 GMT).

The television report said the Albanians had used heavy machineguns and mortars. It said one house was hit and two mortars each fell on a hill and inside the village.

The ethnic Albanian Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, known as the UCPMB, emerged about a year ago in the Presevo Valley area on the Serbian side of the boundary, saying it was fighting police repression in the area.

Serb authorities have branded them terrorist separatists bent on uniting the area with internationally-run Kosovo.

The group has driven Serb police out of several villages in buffer zone, set up after Yugoslav forces left Kosovo in June 1999 and NATO-led peacekeepers moved into the province. Only lightly armed local police are allowed in the zone.

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Kosovo's U.N. governor said on Wednesday that Kosovo Albanian prisoners in Serbian jails should be transferred to detention facilities in the province while their cases are reviewed.

Hans Haekkerup of Denmark said the prisoners, whose fate is one of the biggest political issues in post-war Kosovo, should have their convictions re-examined under a process supervised by his United Nations-led administration.

International officials say more than 700 Kosovo Albanian prisoners remain in Serbian jails. Yugoslavia's new reformist government has proposed an amnesty for political prisoners and others jailed during the autocratic rule of Slobodan Milosevic.

About 200 Kosovo Albanians are expected to be released under the amnesty and plans are being made for their return, U.N. officials said.

But the remaining prisoners are not expected to be freed, in many cases because they have been convicted of terrorism which is not covered under the proposed amnesty law.

``We think that those who cannot be released under the amnesty law should be returned to Kosovo,'' Haekkerup said.

``And then we, the international community according to international standards, will then review the cases and release the people who have been held without legal reason.''

U.N. officials said they expected the amnesty law could be approved as early as February 1 in Belgrade and a large release of prisoners could follow soon afterwards.

``We're prepared to transport them...to a central location where they would meet their families,'' U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel said.

Many of the prisoners at issue were detained by Serbian forces in Kosovo during the 1999 NATO air strikes that eventually prompted Belgrade to halt a military crackdown on ethnic Albanians and quit the province.

Ethnic Albanians and international human rights groups say many of the prisoners were detained arbitrarily or just because they were of fighting age and were subsequently convicted in trials which fell far short of acceptable standards.

Yugoslav Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac said earlier this month the amnesty law would not cover terrorism charges because of the gravity of the alleged crimes and because Belgrade has international obligations in fighting terrorism.

He pledged, however, that the Yugoslav justice system would correct any errors that had been made at the original trials.

Up to 2,000 ethnic Albanians were charged mostly with terrorism and some were sentenced to up to 15 years during and after NATO's 11-week bombing Yugoslavia

Many have been released, but protests over the fate of the remaining prisoners and more than 3,500 people registered as missing from the conflict draw large crowds around Kosovo.