Russia's envoy to the Balkans, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, said yesterday he had outlined "new circumstances" in proposals for ending the war to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who reacted very well.
Mr Chernomyrdin, who held talks on the Kosovo crisis in Bonn on Saturday, explained the unspecified circumstances to Mr Milosevic during a telephone conversation yesterday on the way to the airport.
Asked on arrival in Moscow how Mr Milosevic reacted, Mr Chernomyrdin told journalists: "Well. He took them very well."
"New questions and new circumstances have appeared. They are very serious circumstances and are why I took a decision to fly to Moscow and not Belgrade," Mr Chernomyrdin said.
He gave no further details, but said he intended to speak by telephone with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov. He hoped to meet Mr Primakov and Mr Ivanov late yesterday. "If not today, then tomorrow," he said.
Mr Chernomyrdin plans to hold talks with US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, early this week, and Itar-Tass news agency quoted him from Bonn as saying he would also consult Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari before heading to Belgrade.
"Only after that, when I will have concrete proposals in hand, can I leave for a personal meeting in Belgrade with Slobodan Milosevic," Tass quoted Mr Chernomyrdin.
On Saturday, Mr Chernomyrdin also met the ethnic Albanian leader, Mr Ibrahim Rugova, who he said supports autonomy for Kosovo within Yugoslavia, the disarming of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rebels, and deployment of an international force in the province.