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March 22, 1999
Web posted at: 9:02 a.m. EDT (0902 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- International mediators are in Belgrade on Monday to make a final effort to talk Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic into accepting an international peace plan for Kosovo -- or face massive NATO airstrikes.

Despite the high-powered diplomatic effort, the fighting in the Serbian province continued unabated on Monday as government troops and the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army exchanged fire, further aggravating an already massive refugee crisis.

The three international mediators -- Chris Hill of the United States, Russian Boris Mayorsky and European Union envoy Wolfgang Petritsch -- were scheduled to meet Yugoslav government leaders, including Milosevic.

U.S. special Balkan envoy Richard Holbrooke was expected to meet Milosevic after those talks.

Last October, Holbrooke talked Milosevic into agreeing to a cease-fire in Kosovo but that truce later collapsed.

Holbrooke will meet with Milosevic

If Milosevic refuses to accept a peace plan this time, "the consequences will be clear and severe," Holbrooke said earlier on Monday, after meeting NATO and European officials in Brussels.

"We are at the brink," Holbrooke said in reference to repeated international threats of NATO airstrikes. "Time is short."

Holbrooke had stopped over in Brussels on his way to Belgrade to consult with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana and foreign ministers Robin Cook of Britain, Hubert Vedrine of France and Joschka Fischer of Germany.

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

Cook echoed Holbrooke's warnings, saying: "We very much hope that at this late stage President Milosevic will take this chance to make peace. The record shows he is a brinksman. He is now at the brink."

NATO has said for months that an air campaign will be massive and will be aimed at incapacitating the Yugoslav army to stop its crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

But in Russia, Yugoslavia's traditional ally, Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov warned that Moscow was totally opposed to NATO strikes.

"We are categorically against the use of force against Yugoslavia. We believe that political levers to influence the situation are far from being exhausted yet," he said on Monday.

Major powers -- including the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- want Belgrade to sign a peace accord that would grant sweeping autonomy to Kosovo but leave it an integral part of the Yugoslav federation.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the province's population, have agreed to the plan and signed it.

But, despite the latest diplomatic efforts, fighting continued in Kosovo on Monday.

Ethnic Albanian rebels fired on a Serbian police station in the strategic town of Malisevo with mortars and automatic weapons, according to Serbian sources in the provincial capital Pristina.

There also were no indications the Yugoslav army had halted its powerful offensive which, according to the U.N. refugee agency, has prompted another 25,000 people to flee the embattled regions over the weekend.

Evidence is labeled in Pristina, where four Serb policemen were killed in a drive-by shooting on Sunday

Witnesses said that Serbian special police carrying automatic weapons moved out of the smoke and flames of Gornja Klina, evidently having finished their work in the village about five kilometers (three miles) north of the town of Srbica.

Correspondents Tom Mintier and Chris Burns, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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