Kosovo's rebel force, the Kosovo Liberation Army, last night sketched out a plan for "virtual" independence for Kosovo which it hopes will follow any Serb withdrawal.
Leaders say that to placate the West they will agree that, for the moment, Kosovo remains, on paper, a part of Yugoslavia, but that in reality it will become a separate state.
"Only formally we are a part of Yugoslavia, because Serbia, or Yugoslavia, will have no more power in Kosovo," said the KLA's London spokesman, Mr Pleurat Sejdiu. "All the life will be under international control."
Kosovo would have the self-government the West supports but would also ignore all other symbols of authority from Belgrade, including taxes, administration, army and police. The West still hopes the KLA will back the plan first outlined at peace talks in the France's Rambouillet Chateau, France, in February, in which it agreed to drop demands for independence, and disarm, in return for self-government and NATO protection.
But Mr Sejdiu said this is unrealistic. "We have to go back to the Rambouillet accord. There must be new talks."
He said disarmament was impractical, with Albanians never again trusting the Belgrade authorities.
"After our return, the Serbs will find that most Albanians will have Kalasnikovs."
The KLA insists it will remain as a military force, and hopes NATO will agree to seeing a slimmed-down KLA, with its units training under Alliance supervision, as a fully-fledged army for the province.
"We have to transfer to a smaller force, it would train and operate under the full control of NATO," said Mr Sejdiu.
The KLA leader, Mr Hasim Thaci, designated prime minister of a provisional government formed by the Kosovar delegates at Rambouillet, is already moving into the political mainstream, hoping to contest the elections the West says it wants to supervise.
Talks between Mr Thaci and Western leaders in recent weeks have led to a tacit agreement: The West is desperate not to be seen to be delivering independence to the Kosovars, something it fears would encourage separatist groups across the world to follow suit.
Instead, it wants the KLA to go along with the fig-leaf of self-government. KLA leaders will do this, acknowledging in public that they are living inside a province of Yugoslavia, albeit one with autonomy, and with its final status to be defined.
KLA leaders want to see Kosovo placed under the UN or another international body for up to five years, during which time the final status is left hanging in the air. Elections will be held for a government that will run local affairs, and which, with Albanians making up 90 per cent of the population, is likely to campaign for full independence.
During this time, the Albanian leaders hope the Serbs, marginalised and perhaps fearful of reprisals, would leave the province, making it easy after a few years to turn a de facto "virtual" independence into the real thing.
However, some Serbs are likely to stay on, particularly those guarded by Russian troops, and the many who feel that Kosovo, which they regard as the spiritual centre of Serbdom, is their most sacred place.
Recent weeks have seen the stern-faced Mr Thaci in the unfamiliar role of pressing the flesh at refugee camps as he tries to raise his electoral profile. However, Mr Thaci's enemy in the political battle is not the Serbs - they form less than 10 per cent of Kosovo's population - but the ethnic Albanian pacifist leader, Dr Ibrahim Rugova. Dr Rugova was elected in unrecognised elections as "president" of the Kosovars in 1992 and again last year.
Mr Thaci hopes Kosovars will be disillusioned by Dr Rugova's failure, and that of his party, the League of Democratic Kosovo, to take up arms against the Serbs.
However Mr Thaci, nicknamed "the Snake" for his darting eyes, may face problems within his own army if he turns it into a political force.
"We will have an internal struggle for power between the KLA and the LDK," said Daut Dauti, London correspondent for the Kosovar magazine Zeri. "The KLA will say they were the only ones who tried to opposed the Serbs while the LDK did nothing."
The biggest obstacle to this may be the occupation of a part of the country by Russian troops. "The biggest problem is the Russian sector. How big will it be?" said Dauti. "If Russian troops are there, people will not go back."
For the moment the rebels intend to keep fighting, saying that, like NATO, they will stop only when it is clear the Serbs have pulled back. The sole exception will be so-called Red Lines, which Mr Sejdiu says are designated highways that Serb units can use to leave the province.
"If they stick to the Red Lines we will leave them alone," he said. "But those roads are one way and if they move around in no-man's land they can be hit."