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LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - The United States has raised objections to a European Union proposal to send heating oil to towns in Serbia controlled by opponents of President Slobodan Milosevic, a senior U.S. official said.
He said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright hadspelled out in a telephone call to British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook a series of concerns about the ``Energy for Democracy'' plan that EU foreign ministers are due to discuss in Luxembourg on Monday.
Under the plan, first proposed by dissident Yugoslav economists and then taken up by EU members Greece and the Netherlands, the EU would initially supply heating oil to the southeastern towns of Nis and Pirot in a pilot scheme expected to cost about five million euros ($5.2 million).
``We are very reserved,'' the U.S. official said. ``We are all for the 'democracy' part of the slogan but we are concerned about the energy going to anti-democrats, and especially to anti-democrat number one,'' he said in a reference to Milosevic.
A Foreign Office official said Britain had talked through the issue with the United States and believed the West had a duty to respond to Serbian opposition appeals.
``The American government position is on the whole at the hawkish end of the spectrum. We are on the 'give it a go' end,'' the British official said.
HUMANITARIAN AID?
After the Kosovo war earlier this year, the United States and Britain vowed to bar any reconstruction assistance to Yugoslavia as long as Milosevic remained in power, but said they would allow humanitarian aid.
The argument now is about whether providing heating to help people through the harsh Balkan winter falls within that category and whether the EU can prevent the oil being diverted.
At a meeting in Finland in early September, a majority of the 15 EU ministers rejected as impractical the idea of a selective easing of the oil embargo they imposed during the war.
They appear set to change their minds in response to appeals from Serbian opposition leaders, who warn that Milosevic will otherwise be able to blame NATO if people freeze to death in opposition-controlled towns during the winter.
The U.S. official said that while the West should do everything possible to help the democratic opposition and encourage it to be more cohesive, there was a ``very compelling case for maintaining the pressure and sanctions on the regime.''
``It increases the chances that the dymamics of the situation will bring about a change of leadership,'' he said.
The official also said Washington was concerned that the EU was not coming up with the generous funding it promised for a Southeast European stability pact to rebuild the Balkans agreed at a summit in Sarajevo in July.
In a transatlantic division of labour, European Union leaders agreed to pay the lion's share of reconstruction costs after the United States bore most of the military burden of the Kosovo war.
Several Serbian opposition politicians, including the mayor of Nis, are due to meet the EU ministers in Luxembourg.
Britain and Denmark want the EU to issue a declaration after that meeting promising Serbia an end to isolation and rapid financial aid once indicted war criminals have been removed from office in Yugoslavia.
Diplomats in Brussels said the EU ministers were expected to endorse the ``Energy for Democracy'' plan in principle, but a practical way of implementing had yet to be worked out. The method was being studied urgently to ensure that supplies reached the towns before winter sets in later this month.
``It's not a risk-free move,'' one EU diplomat conceded.