Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight, made up of the world's seven leading industrialised countries and Russia, will meet in Bonn today to agree on a UN Security Council resolution based on the peace terms accepted by Yugoslavia last week.
The meeting was originally planned for yesterday but was postponed to allow the foreign ministers to assess the progress of talks between NATO and Yugoslav generals on the Serbian withdrawal from Kosovo.
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman insisted yesterday that the delay did not imply that there were new disagreements between NATO and Russia over how the peace agreement should be implemented. A draft Security Council resolution is believed to have been drawn up by G8 diplomats in Cologne within hours of Belgrade's acceptance of the West's peace offer.
Today's meeting, at the German government guest-house in Bonn, is scheduled to last just two hours and 30 minutes - an indication that the foreign ministers may have already agreed on the draft resolution.
The Finnish President, Mr Martti Ahtisaari, who as EU envoy helped to broker last week's agreement with Yugoslavia, had been due to fly to Beijing last night in an attempt to persuade China to back the resolution, a key element if the settlement is to be copper-fastened. However, he delayed his departure because of the stalling of the troop-withdrawal talks in Macedonia.
The success of NATO's campaign has not silenced German critics of the decision to bomb Yugoslavia, and anti-war activists within the Greens vowed yesterday to oppose any attempt to send more German troops to Kosovo. The Defence Minister, Mr Rudolf Scharping, has made clear that the current Bundeswehr contingent of 6,000 soldiers will need to be expanded for Germany to play a significant role within the peacekeeping force.
Any new deployment of forces to Kosovo will require a fresh Bundestag mandate.
The Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, and his Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, have won enthusiastic praise from the German media for their role in ending the conflict with Yugoslavia. But Mr Schroder suggested yesterday that, once the bombing campaign ended, NATO ought to examine its command and decision-making processes. "There is no disputing the fact that there were incidents that give rise to some concern - look at the destruction of the Chinese embassy," he said.
The Russian Prime Minister, Mr Sergei Stepashin, meanwhile made clear yesterday that Russia was not entirely happy with NATO's terms for halting the bombing of Yugoslavia but would press ahead with peace moves.
He said Russia would concentrate its diplomatic efforts on preparation of a UN Security Council resolution on a Kosovo peace accord.
"Too many questions are being solved with NATO calling the tune," Mr Stepashin said in televised remarks. But "the main thing is that the war is stopped in Yugoslavia", he added. "Our main task is to prepare a serious resolution on Yugoslavia for the Security Council. We have to treat it very seriously."
NATO's plan for Kosovo, accepted by Belgrade, leaves Russia on the sidelines of the peace deal, despite the participation of the Russian peace envoy, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, in its preparation.
A Russian military attache arrived in Macedonia yesterday to join prolonged talks between NATO and Yugoslav generals on NATO's plan for withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from Kosovo. Lieut Col Yevgeny Barmyanchev, military attache in Belgrade, was invited to the talks as an observer by the Yugoslav side.
