G-8 PLAN: Key points of the G-8 peace plan include: An end to fighting in Kosovo. A withdrawal of all Yugoslav troops and Serb special police. The safe return of all refugees. The installation of a NATO-led peacekeeping force to protect returning refugees. The creation of an interim administration for the province. The eventual autonomy of Kosovo within Yugoslavia. A formula for the economic redevelopment and stabilization of the province. RELATED VIDEO British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook reacts to the Serb Parliament vote accepting the Kosovo peace plan (June 3) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Kosovo, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K IMAGE GALLERY The many faces of refugee relief NATO off target  ALSO:  THE DELUGE OF REFUGEES: Where are they going?  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: NATO at 50 Strike on Yugoslavia

June 3, 1999
Web posted at: 12:17 p.m. EDT (1617 GMT)

In this story: Serbian parliament debate heated NATO says bombing to continue for now Peacekeeping details remain unresolved RELATED STORIES, SITES

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Yugoslavia has accepted a joint European, Russian and U.S. proposal to end the NATO air war against it, but NATO said it will not end the bombardment until the plan is implemented.

Finland's president told a meeting of European Union leaders in Cologne, Germany, on Thursday that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic had agreed to the plan, which is based on principles laid out by the Group of Eight nations last month.

"All relevant parties have accepted the offer," Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, the EU's envoy in Yugoslavia, told reporters without mentioning Milosevic by name.

Yugoslavia's acceptance of the G-8 plan could bring to an end the NATO air war, which began March 24. NATO officials said they were encouraged by the news, but Yugoslavia must begin to implement the plan, including the withdrawal of troops from Kosovo, before it will stop the bombing.

Ahtisaari was to brief European leaders on his talks with Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and Milosevic, Finnish diplomatic sources said. Ahtisaari then is expected to rejoin Chernomyrdin and U.S. envoy Strobe Talbott in Helsinki to work on details of the agreement.

News of Milosevic's concurrence came shortly after Serbia's parliament voted to accept the European, Russian and U.S.- backed proposal -- including a "fundamental" role for NATO troops in a peacekeeping force.

The vote followed more than 10 weeks of bombardment by NATO air forces aimed at forcing Milosevic -- now charged with war crimes by a U.N. tribunal -- to make peace in Kosovo, a province of Yugoslavia's dominant Serbian republic.

The plan includes an international security presence to ensure the safe return of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees and a troop withdrawal in Kosovo, where NATO says the Yugoslav army has carried out a campaign of repression against civilians.

Milosevic's decision to accept the G-8 plan followed an affirmative vote in the Serbian parliament -- a signal that Milosevic wanted public acceptance for the plan. On March 23, that body rejected NATO's peace formula for Kosovo, and the alliance began its military action the next day.

The agreement was accepted by a vote of 136-74 amid heated debate. A minority party spokesman called it "capitulation," and delegates sometimes came close to fistfights during the debate.

"We will never accept aggressive troops in any part of Serbia," said Vojislav Seselj, a deputy premier and leader of the hard-line Radical Party, which opposed the G-8 proposal.

But other members of parliament cheered the move.

"This is a great day for the Serbian nation, for all citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, for the future of the peace and stability in this region," said Vuk Draskovic, a former deputy prime minister who was fired after he criticized the war.

Goran Matic, a senior Yugoslav minister-without-portfolio in Yugoslavia's federal government, called the plan "the first step" to making peace.

Cautious optimism marked the early reaction from NATO members.

Athisaari said Milosevic has agreed to the plan

• In Brussels, Belgium, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said the alliance would have no comment until its governing body, the North Atlantic Council, could review the deal.
  
  "For now, air operations continue," Shea said.
  
  As Yugoslav leaders deliberated, there were no immediate reports of NATO strikes around Belgrade. But scattered bombing in other parts of Yugoslavia was reported overnight. And NATO estimated Thursday that the war has cost the Yugoslav armed forces more than 10,000 dead and wounded.
  
  
• The development added a greater sense of urgency to a Thursday meeting between U.S. President Bill Clinton and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The agenda includes an update on planning the peacekeeping force, which would include 7,000 U.S. ground troops.
  
  "This appears to be a positive development, but let us not rush to judgment," one senior U.S. official told CNN.
  
  
• British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said Yugoslavia's acceptance "is not enough in itself" to stop the bombing, "but it's a very encouraging step."
  
  Bombing would stop only when NATO sees evidence that Yugoslavia has begun to implement the plan's terms, he said.
  
  "If that is what Belgrade accepts, then we do have a good basis for securing the objectives of our campaign," Cook said.
  
  
• Chernomyrdin was heading back to Moscow on Thursday, telling Russian reporters, "In the upcoming days, we can expect a halt in the bombing."

"This is a great day for the Serbian nation" -- Draskovic

If NATO finds Yugoslavia's acceptance satisfactory, an advance guard of 16,000 allied troops is in place in surrounding countries and ready to move into Kosovo.

Eventually, NATO plans to provide about 50,000 troops for a Kosovo peacekeeping force. NATO will move "expeditiously" to put as many as 30,000 troops in Macedonia alone, Shea said.

The agreement is similar to the failed Rambouillet accords, which Kosovo's ethnic Albanian representatives accepted -- but Milosevic rejected -- in March.

The major difference between the two pacts is that Rambouillet called for a peacekeeping force in Kosovo composed strictly of NATO troops, while the G-8 proposal calls for its peacekeepers to have a mandate from the U.N. Security Council.

The peacekeeping force -- dubbed KFOR -- is likely to include both NATO and Russian troops, perhaps under a British commander, White House officials said. Details such as those are what will be discussed by the three envoys Friday.

Ahtisaari's meeting with Milosevic marked the Yugoslav president's first direct talks with a Western diplomat since the war began

Ahtisaari's trip to Belgrade with Chernomyrdin marked the first direct talks by a Western diplomat with Milosevic since the NATO bombings began.

Sticking points in peace talks included the makeup of the peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo: Yugoslavia insisted it be under United Nations control, while NATO held out for a force under its command.

The Yugoslavs also fought NATO's demand for a total pullback of its 40,000-strong army in Kosovo.

The Serbian parliament concluded NATO would play a "fundamental" role in any international presence in Kosovo. Yugoslavia agrees to limit its military presence in the province to a few hundred troops, mainly to protect sites considered historic to Serbs.

The plan accepted Thursday was drawn under principles agreed to in early May by the G-8 nations, which include the seven major industrial powers and Russia. Last week, Yugoslavia announced it accepted the "general principles" of the G-8 proposal.

Correspondents Walter Rodgers, Patricia Kelly, Christiane Amanpour, Matthew Chance and John King contributed to this report.

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