NATO hits Serbian TV again, pledges aid to Balkan states

Targeting oil supplies

NATO has now pledged to target oil supplies bound for Milosevic's "military machine," ordering its military staff to draw up plans to search ships bound for Yugoslavia.

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said NATO's "unanimity is total" on the decision to try to keep oil shipments from entering Yugoslavia's ports.

Yugoslav officials condemned NATO's plans.

"The oil embargo would be another illegal, unauthorized activity by NATO, in addition to its aggression and a number of other actions in the field of economic strangulation of Yugoslavia," said Vladislav Jovanovic, the charges d'affaires at the Yugoslav mission to the United Nations.

"So the whole international community should react in the appropriate way in condemning that action and requesting that NATO act and behave in line with international law, and not as a wild and political and military alliance acting on its own and against the charter of U.N.," Jovanovic said.

Anti-NATO demonstrators protest in Washington as world leaders met blocks away for NATO's 50th anniversary summit

But Adm. Peter Abbott, vice chief of Britain's defense staff, said the alliance was unified in its campaign.

"NATO is united politically," he said. "It is also united militarily and remains a capable and united force for good."

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said Saturday that the procedures for how ships will be searched and which will be boarded will be developed over the next few days by NATO's supreme commander, Gen. Wesley Clark. His plans will then be submitted to the alliance's political leadership for approval.

Shea did not give a date for when the so-called "visit-and-search regime" to interdict oil shipments would begin.

Of particular concern is the possible reaction of Russia if any of its ships were to be intercepted. Russia has been a major supplier of oil to Yugoslavia.

Ground troops not discussed at summit

Shea again emphasized that while NATO is reviewing contingency plans for the possible use of ground troops, any talk of a ground offensive is "premature."

NATO diplomats told CNN that the question of deploying ground troops has not been raised by any of the leaders at the NATO summit being held this weekend in Washington, despite public suggestions by Britain and France that ground troops should be used.

With leaders of NATO countries in Washington for the alliance's 50th anniversary summit, several hundred pro-Yugoslav demonstrators held a rally Saturday in Lafayette Park across from the White House.

They carried Yugoslav flags, waved the three-finger Yugoslav salute and chanted anti-NATO protests, including "Stop the bombing. Stop the War" and "Hey, hey, U.S.A., how many kids have you killed today?"

Many in the crowd wore T-shirts bearing bulls-eye targets, which Yugoslavs have adopted as a show of defiance.

In another diplomatic development, Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said he may travel to Moscow in an effort to move forward efforts to resolve the Kosovo crisis.

Axworthy told reporters that he will carry no "secret plan" or initiative but rather will exchange ideas with Russians on recent peace proposals put forward by former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and others.

Correspondents Wolf Blitzer, Ralph Begleiter, Brent Sadler and Patricia Kelly contributed to this report.

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