March 8, 1999
Web posted at: 4:44 p.m. EDT (1644 GMT)

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Rebel Kosovo Liberation Army leaders have approved the terms of a proposed peace plan for Kosovo and are prepared to sign it, the U.S. State Department said Monday.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said following several hours of talks with U.S. Kosovo envoy , KLA leaders "asked him to tell Secretary (of State Madeleine) Albright that they have approved the agreement as negotiated at Rambouillet and that they have authorized its signature."

But Rubin was guarded in his reaction to the KLA announcement, saying it was important for the rebels to actually sign the document, not merely promise to do so.

"What we need to do is get maximum clarity from the Kosovar Albanian side ... The point is that until an agreement is signed, it's not signed," he told reporters.

Kosovo Albanians and Serb leaders agreed in principle to the political aspects of the peace agreement after more than two weeks of talks in Rambouillet, France, last month. But the Serbs have adamantly opposed allowing NATO peacekeepers into Kosovo to guarantee the peace, as specified in the proposal.

The international draft peace plan for Kosovo would give the majority ethnic Albanians wide-ranging regional autonomy but would leave the Serbian province an integral part of the Yugoslav federation.

The Balkan Contact Group -- which brings together the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy -- hopes that a final peace accord can be signed at a second round of Kosovo peace talks scheduled for March 15 in France.

The State Department also announced Monday that U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, who brokered an October cease-fire between Serbs and ethnic Albanian rebels, would travel to Belgrade on Wednesday to pressure Yugoslav authorities to accept the deal.

In a written statement, Rubin said Holbrooke accepted a request from Albright to encourage the Serbs "to accept the Rambouillet accords, including both their political and civilian, and military implementation elements."

"Ambassador Holbrooke will convey to the authorities in Belgrade the necessity for full compliance with all of their commitments to the international community and for maximum restraint in the period leading up to the March 15 conference in France," Rubin said.

Fighting flares near border

On Monday, there were also reports of renewed fighting in the troubled province.

Truce monitors said clashes between KLA forces and Yugoslav troops had erupted close to a border crossing into Macedonia in the south of the province.

They reported a buildup of Yugoslav army troops to the west of the frontier post in an area where violence in the last weeks drove thousands of ethnic Albanians from their homes.

KLA sources said one of their soldiers was killed in the area on Monday and four were wounded.

Correspondent Tom Mintier andReuters contributed to this report.

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