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February 23, 1999
Web posted at: 11:13 a.m. EST (1613 GMT)

RAMBOUILLET, France (CNN) -- After 17 days of negotiations, ethnic Albanians agreed in principle to sign a Kosovo peace agreement within two weeks, the United States said Tuesday.

U.S. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin told reporters that ethnic Albanians at the Kosovo peace talks in Rambouillet, near Paris, would sign the document after "technical consultations" with the people in Kosovo.

However, the Yugoslav delegation was still said to be firm in its objections to the deployment of a NATO force in Kosovo to implement a peace agreement, and to an independence referendum -- three years from now -- for ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

News Highlights: Gallery: The conflict in review News story archive Yugoslavia's Future: What's next for Yugoslavia Map: Who controls what The Peace Settlement: A guide to the peace plan Map: Serb troop withdrawal The Military Campaign: Strike damage assessment Atlas: NATO and the Balkans Background: Timeline: Trouble in the Balkans A who's who of key players Map: Kosovo and its neighbors A history of the KLA

NATO had threatened to bomb Yugoslav targets should the ethnic Albanians accept an accord and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic reject it.

There is general agreement that there will be no imminent bombings should both sides reject an accord or reach at least a partial peace agreement.

U.S. President Bill Clinton said shortly before the latest announcement by Rubin that "a lot of progress" had been achieved at the peace conference but that "there are still some important disagreements."

Rubin had also told reporters earlier in the day that the six-nation Balkans Contact Group -- which had set a 3 p.m. deadline Tuesday for the talks to conclude -- wanted to lock in progress achieved to date by sealing at least a partial accord, rather than let the marathon negotiations fail.

The Contact Group includes the United States, Russia, Germany, Britain, France and Italy.

Correspondents Christiane Amanpour and Brent Sadler,The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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