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MILITARY PLAN:  ALSO: Yugoslav military presence in Kosovo drawing to a close U.N. wants 2 weeks before Kosovar refugees return  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Focus on Kosovo

June 20, 1999
Web posted at: 3:14 a.m. EDT (0714 GMT)

In this story: Encouraging word for Russia Crucial mediating role Clinton and Yeltsin try to 'turn a page' Millions of signatures RELATED STORIES, SITES

COLOGNE, Germany (CNN) -- With thorny issues involving reconstruction of Yugoslavia still unresolved among Western and Russian leaders, Russian President Boris Yeltsin flew to Cologne on Sunday to attend the final day of the summit of the Group of Eight nations.

Walking slowly, and at first with the aid of his wife, Naina, Yeltsin stepped carefully from the presidential plane.

The Russian leader is to take part in the signing ceremony of documents adopted at the Cologne summit, and he will also meet U.S. President Bill Clinton and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Yeltsin and Clinton will try to rebuild strained U.S.-Russian relations on Sunday in their first meeting since the Kosovo war.

On Saturday, Russian and Western leaders failed to reach an agreement on providing reconstruction aid for Yugoslavia, while President Slobodan Milosevic remains in power.

The United States and Britain want any aid contingent on Milosevic's departure, but the Russians take another view.

The final communique of the G-8, which operates on consensus, to be issued at the conclusion of the summit on Sunday, would not explicitly rule out reconstruction aid for Yugoslavia.

Schroeder held open the possibility of reconstructing destroyed power plants and roads in Yugoslavia, following more than two months of airstrikes by NATO.

"One cannot make the Serbian people suffer for their president," Schroeder said. "One cannot leave them without power in winter or without heat."

But U.S. National Security Adviser Samuel Berger said that while the United States would support humanitarian aid, the line between humanitarian and reconstruction aid was not clear.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his wife walk carefully down the stairs upon his arrival in Germany

Russia did have good news from the summit.

The G-8, or Group of Eight, leaders agreed on a plan to provide Russia with relief from the debt which has plagued its economy.

The final communique will include an arrangement under which Russia can reschedule payments of nearly $70 billion in debt run up by the communist government during the days of the old Soviet Union.

Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, who stood in for Yeltsin during the first two days of the meeting, said Schroeder also agreed to push the International Monetary Fund to release $4.5 billion in Western aid that was blocked when Russia's financial markets collapsed last August.

Stepashin called the first two days of the Cologne summit "exceptionally successful and productive."

President Yeltsin speaks to reporters, saying the countries must be "friends again after a fight"

Russia froze relations with NATO over the air strikes. Later, however, it played a crucial role in mediating a deal between NATO and Belgrade which allowed an international peacekeeping force to enter Serbia's southern region of Kosovo, and led to a halt in airstrikes.

Russia and the United States, in a series of tense talks completed on Friday in Helsinki, agreed on Moscow's role in the Kosovo peacekeeping force.

Russia agreed to a plan which allows for 3,600 Russian soldiers to take part in the NATO-led force fanning out through Kosovo.

In Cologne, Stepashin briefed leaders of the seven leading industrial nations -- the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan -- on Russia's efforts to fight bitter economic crisis. The Group of Eight includes the seven nations plus Russia.

Moscow badly needs the support of the leading democracies in its efforts to restructure the huge debt owed by Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Yeltsin and Clinton are to hold talks at the Renaissance Hotel on Sunday, sitting down together for the first time in 10 months to discuss issues ranging from Kosovo to arms control, nuclear arms reduction and the dire state of the Russian economy.

The two sides have wanted to begin negotiations on a new arms reductions treaty, but have been unable to do so because the Russian parliament has yet to ratify their earlier START II pact.

But the Kosovo conflict and its aftermath was the top item on their agenda. It badly frayed U.S.-Russian ties, with Moscow furious at NATO's 11-week bombing campaign that ended 10 days ago with Yugoslavia's capitulation to the Western alliance.

Yugoslav troops and police are due to finish their withdrawal from Kosovo by midnight on Sunday. NATO officers say they are likely to complete the pullout earlier than the deadline.

U.S. and Russian officials hope the deal will lead to better ties. "There has been a kind of elephant in the room, which makes it difficult to ignore," Berger said on Saturday, with regard to the impasse over Kosovo. "I think that with that elephant gone...it's possible to now deal with a series of issues that are extraordinarily important."

Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Yakushkin agreed that the agreement reached in Helsinki had cleared the air. "I think a page has been turned," he said.

Speaking to reporters in Cologne, the cathedral city on the Rhine where Clinton and Yeltsin will meet after a summit of major Western powers and Russia, Yakushkin said their talks could be vital to lifting Russian-U.S. relations from their lowest ebb since the Cold War.

Yeltsin, who is 68, suffers from heart disease and has been in poor health this year.

Stepashin raced home to brief Yeltsin at Moscow's Vnukovo airport early on Sunday before Yeltsin departed for Cologne.

Stepashin spent much of his time at the summit assuring the Western leaders that Russia aimed to meet the International Monetary Fund's conditions to secure about $4.5 billion in loans.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters formed a human chain to draw attention to the issue of debt-relief for poor nations. Among the protesters was Bono, lead singer of the group U-2, who presented a petition containing millions of signatures to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Schroeder.

The protest took place despite the G-8 agreement on Friday to write off about $90 billion in debt owed by poor nations which agreed to pursue market-oriented reforms and use the money freed up by debt relief to improve social conditions.

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