Serbian TV shows images of damaged food-processing plant in Valjevo RELATED VIDEO CNN's Mike Boettcher spent the day with KLA troops. Listen to his exclusive firsthand account (April 14) Windows Media 28K 80K Yugoslavia's president makes his first public appearance since NATO attacks began. CNN's Brent Sadler is in Belgrade. (April 14) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Satinder Bindra reports on the tension in villages along the Yugolsavia-Albanian border (April 14) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Yugoslavia, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K IMAGE GALLERY: The Kosovo refugees Protesting the NATO strikes Devastation of Kosovo capital The Serbs and Kosovo  ALSO Serbs accuse NATO of bombing Albanians fleeing Kosovo More U.S. warplanes head to Europe  MESSAGE BOARD Crisis in Kosovo  MAPS Gen. Wesley Clark describes NATO air campaign

April 14, 1999
Web posted at: 5:18 p.m. EDT (2118 GMT)

In this story: German plan 'food for thought' NATO preparing for 'end game' Serbs: Kosovo convoy attacked Annan possible mediator Milosevic says unarmed presence acceptable Serbs report food rationing RELATED STORIES, SITES

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- European Union leaders supported a U.N. peace initiative for Kosovo Wednesday, but they repeated that NATO's bombing campaign would stop only when Belgrade meets the alliance's key demands.

Those include an immediate end to the use of violence in Kosovo; the withdrawal of all Serb forces from the province; the deployment of an international security force; and the safe return of all refugees.

"It is up to the Yugoslav authorities to fully accept the international demands and begin immediately with their implementation," said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Schroeder, current president of the 15-nation European Union, convened a special EU summit Wednesday to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"I came to listen and explore ways and means of intensifying the diplomatic efforts and try to achieve the objectives that have been set," Annan said after the meeting.

Reading a draft EU statement, Schroeder said Russia's contribution to the Kosovo peace effort was "indispensable."

Russia has strongly opposed the NATO air operation and has severed its relations with the alliance, which began launching airstrikes March 24 after Yugoslavia refused to halt its crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

Russia was part of the six-nation Contact Group -- along with the United States, France, Britain, Germany and Italy -- that negotiated a peace agreement for Kosovo in Rambouillet, France, in February. That agreement was signed by the Kosovo Albanians, but rejected by the Serbs.

German plan 'food for thought'

Germany has proposed a plan that calls for a 24-hour halt to NATO airstrikes to give Yugoslavia a chance to start withdrawing its forces from Kosovo.

NATO called the German plan a "food-for-thought paper," but did not immediately endorse it.

"It's a very useful and necessary effort to begin reflection on how we are going to handle the diplomacy of the end game," said NATO spokesman Jamie Shea.

"We need to allow for the return of refugees, to allow for the deployment of international troops to protect the refugees and the population of Kosovo," said Schroeder.

NATO preparing for 'end game'

NATO officials said Wednesday they were marshaling their forces for "the end game" in their campaign against Yugoslavia.

"We will have more or less 1,000 aircraft on stream very soon -- able to maintain a continuous operation to tighten the screw on Serb forces," Shea said.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic "is becoming weaker as NATO is becoming stronger," Shea said. "It is no longer a question of if we will win, but simply when."

Yugoslav officials said NATO planes struck a convoy of ethnic Albanians in southwestern Kosovo on Wednesday, killing at least 75 civilians.

Video from an Associated Press cameraman taken to the scene by Serb authorities showed bloodied bodies of elderly men and devastated tractors along a road.

NATO said it had attacked a military convoy on the same road and that its pilots believed they hit only military vehicles.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said he had received unconfirmed reports that Yugoslav aircraft had been targeting ethnic Albanians trying to leave Kosovo.

Annan possible mediator

Both NATO and Russia, which has sharply criticized the bombings, have indicated they view Annan as a possible mediator. Belgrade described Annan's efforts as the "last chance" to peacefully settle the NATO-Yugoslavia standoff.

British Defense Secretary George Robertson told CNN that EU partners, most of whom also belong to NATO, planned to show they were still firmly committed to the NATO action.

"What will come out of today's summit will be the united resolve of European countries and all the NATO countries that (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic is going to be defeated," Robertson said.

The decision by Britain and the United States in recent days to commit more heavy weaponry and troops to the Balkans underlined "the rock solid unity of NATO," he said.

Shea said NATO's latest raids struck two more bridges and more military targets, including control facilities, fuel installations and lines of communications.

While Wednesday's raids were relatively light because of poor weather, Shea said, "We are neutralizing the weather factor" so that the bombings can continue "in thickest clouds and heaviest rain."

NATO also planned to launch Operation Allied Harbor on Wednesday, which aims to use NATO troops to help stabilize the refugee situation in Albania. An estimated 300,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo have poured into Albania during the past three weeks.

Lukashenko, left, and Milosevic talk to reporters in Belgrade

Milosevic says unarmed presence acceptable

Milosevic said Wednesday that Yugoslavia was ready to accept international peacekeepers in Kosovo after a political solution was found, but said they would have to be unarmed and none could come from NATO countries.

He called the NATO campaign "a conspiracy of lies" and said the only way to end the conflict was through negotiations.

NATO officials say that Yugoslavia must agree to an armed NATO peacekeeping force before it will halt the bombing campaign.

Milosevic spoke during a Belgrade news conference after he met with visiting Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for several hours.

The meeting was an apparent step toward cementing Milosevic's wish to join an alliance with fellow Orthodox Slav nation Belarus and its much larger neighbor Russia.

Serbs report food rationing

Serbian television on Wednesday reported NATO attacks on the Bistrica hydroelectric plant near the southern Serb town of Nova Varos, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Belgrade. A nearby bridge on a main railroad line that runs from Belgrade to the Montenegrin port of Bar was lightly damaged, the report said.

Serbian TV said the largest factory in the town of Valjevo, about 112 kilometers (70 miles) southwest of Belgrade, was hit and at least two people were hurt. Four explosions were reported in the central Serb town of Pozega.

Serb authorities said the hard-hit south was preparing for the first food rationing since the airstrikes began on March 24.

Correspondents Brent Sadler and Jim Clancy contributed to his report.

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