NATO and Yugoslav commanders last night signed an agreement for a withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo which, if carried out, will end the fighting in this battered province.
"It's done, they signed it," said Pentagon spokesman Mr Kenneth Bacon, moments after Serb and NATO commanders stepped into the sultry heat of the Macedonian night from the tent at Kumanovo where they have spent several days haggling over peace terms.
A draft resolution provides for NATO troops, designated as KFOR (Kosovo Force), to begin entering the province - perhaps as early as today - and for Serb troops to pull out.
The KFOR's mission will be to protect more than one million returning ethnic Albanian refugees, and then guarantee a self-government agreement for the province.
British general Sir Michael Jackson, commander of NATO forces in Macedonia and the head of the NATO team at the talks at Kumanovo, confirmed that a deal had been signed to end the 77-day-old air campaign.
Air mobile units of British and US paratroopers could sweep into Kosovo today, spearheading the arrival of ground units which will advance as Serbian units withdraw.
Details of the agreement signed last night remain unclear, but include provisions for a staged withdrawal of Serb forces in the province, with NATO following on their heels to avoid a "vacuum" which some Alliance commanders fear might be used by the Kosovo Liberation Army to gain advantage.
Last-minute concessions were reportedly made to the Serb generals, including giving their forces several more days to withdraw. Many loose ends remain. There is as yet no plan for how or when the 10,000 Russian troops assigned to peacekeeping duties in Kosovo will be deployed, nor was it clear how many Serb forces, if any, will be allowed to remain.
Assuming the deal is stuck to, the coming days are likely to see a careful dance of forces in the province, with Serb troops driving away, NATO beginning to advance, and rebel KLA units likely to be active.
It will take many weeks to deploy the 50,000-strong force of peacekeepers, and many more months to return the million-plus refugees to their homes.
Among the many items not addressed was the question of whether the Western alliance has any exit strategy planned.
In Cologne, foreign ministers from the world's seven leading industrial nations and Russia agreed to remove a disputed sentence from the draft Security Council resolution they had agreed on Tuesday. The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, said the removal of the sentence would pave the way for the UN Security Council to approve the draft resolution within 24 hours.
Mr Fischer declined to specify which sentence was being dropped but he said that it referred to a delay of 24 hours between the Yugoslav withdrawal and the deployment of the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
President Clinton has welcomed the signing and said the agreement was "an important step towards achieving our objectives in Kosovo".
In a statement released in Washington, the President said "we and our allies will watch carefully to see whether Serb forces are peacefully leaving Kosovo in accordance with the agreed timetable.
"We have made it clear to the leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army that we expect them not to hinder the Serb withdrawal."
The UN Security Council will convene to vote on a resolution endorsing the peace agreement when the Serb withdrawal has begun and NATO has suspended its air campaign. This is expected some time today.
China, which has said it has difficulties with the draft resolution agreed by foreign ministers from the Group of Eight in Cologne on Tuesday, is not expected to use its veto. US sources say China has privately indicated that it will not veto the resolution if it is endorsed by Russia and the Yugoslav government.