The United States and Russia made "progress in all areas" but fell short of an agreement after nearly eight hours of negotiations on Moscow's role in the Kosovo peacekeeping force, US Defence Secretary Mr William Cohen said early today. The talks were to resume this morning, and Mr Cohen held out hope that an agreement was within reach. "It's been going very well," he told reporters. "I would say we are quite pleased with the progress that's been made but we have more to do."
The Russian Defence Minister, Mr Igor Sergeyev, said the key issue of command over Russian peacekeeping troops had been settled and that a standoff over the Pristina airport was practically settled.
Mr Cohen declined to comment on where differences had been narrowed but agreed with Mr Sergeyev that progress was made in all areas.
Technical discussions on command issues continued after the gruelling ministerial session ended shortly before midnight yesterday, Mr Cohen said.
The talks were to be broadened to include US Secretary of State Ms Madeleine Albright and Russian Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov later today.
Russian news agencies earlier cited Mr Sergeyev as saying: "The issue of how the command of the peace operation is made up including a Russian military contingent has been settled. "The question of (Pristina's) Slatina airport is practically settled, too," he reportedly added.
Mr Sergeyev later said however it was "too early to speak of concrete results.
Russian delegation experts, cited by Russian agencies, said the question of a Russian "zone" or area of Russian responsibility in Kosovo was the main stumbling block.
In Kosovo yesterday, Gen Sir Michael Jackson, the head of Kfor, the NATO-led peacekeeping force, yesterday begged Serbs not to leave the province in a bid to stem an exodus by them into Serbia.
His emotional appeal was made in the village of Kosovo Polje, the village near Pristina which is seen by Serb nationalists as the spiritual heartland of the Serb nation.
"We believe the world has too many refugees already. I beg you not to make the number any greater. Stay at home and we will look after you," he told several hundred Serb villagers.
But the appeal appeared to be in vain as throughout yesterday thousands of Kosovan Serbs decided to leave rather than risk possible retribution by ethnic Albanians.
As soldiers and paramilitaries continued to leave southern Kosovo, guerrillas of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) took over vacated areas, setting up checkpoints and conducting house-by-house searches.
Large areas of southern Kosovo have now been taken over by the KLA, and Russia said yesterday that the United Nations should deal with the problem of disarming them. The ambassador to the UN, Mr Sergei Lavrov, claimed in New York that NATO troops stood by as KLA soldiers moved into positions, contrary to a resolution approving the Kosovo peace plan last week.
"We are concerned by the media reports that as Serbs withdraw according to schedule and to everybody's satisfaction, the KLA moves in and takes positions and refuses to demilitarise," he said.
British government sources in London said NATO and the KLA had already agreed an outline plan for disarming KLA fighters. They said the framework agreement was reached between military officials in Tirana, the Albanian capital, and had been forwarded to the North Atlantic Council, NATO's ruling political body.
Kosovo's only Serbian Orthodox bishop, a pillar of Serb presence in the province, said he was leaving the western city of Prizren because it was no longer safe for him. Bishop Artemije Radosavfljevic said he would leave under German military escort with nine priests and more than 200 Serbs who took refuge at his seminary after armed KLA soldiers began patrolling the streets on Tuesday.