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RUSSIA called for a halt to the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia yesterday, following agreement between the Group of Eight nations to a draft proposals to end the conflict.
Speaking after meeting the foreign ministers of the seven leading industrial countries in Bonn, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said: "At the very least, when we are at a very sensitive stage of negotiations, a pause should be declared."
However, Germany immediately rejected any end to the attacks, which are illegal under international law and the United Nations charter.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who chaired the meeting, said: "There is still a lot to be done before we can consider an interruption of the bombing."
In return for Russian endorsement of NATO conditions for an end to the bombing, Western countries omitted any explicit reference in the agreement to a "military force" in Kosovo and set out a settlement under United Nations auspices.
Mr Ivanov said that NATO could not participate in an international security presence in Kosovo without Yugoslavia's agreement.
"We have written in the principles that we guarantee the sovereignty of Yugoslavia. Without the agreement of that state, nothing is possible."
However, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said later that US and NATO troops must be at the core of an international security presence and that any attempt to exclude them would be unacceptable.
Speaking after the G8 foreign ministers had called for UN-approved "international civil and security presences" in Kosovo, she said: "This must mean a strong military force with NATO at its core."
Asked whether Washington might accept proposals that the US and Britain, which have led the bombing of Yugoslavia, would not participate in the Kosovo force, she said: "That is not acceptable."
Ms Albright also stressed that the US still wanted all Yugoslav military, police and paramilitary forces withdrawn from Kosovo, even though the G8 agreement did not specify whether all or only some Serb troops must be pulled out.
"I don't see it as NATO making concessions. I see this as the Russians trying to deal with this issue," she said.
British Foreign Minister Robin Cook immediately backed US demands for NATO occupation of the province.
He said that any occupation force "must have real teeth and those teeth will have to be supplied by NATO."
NATO secretary-general Javier Solana again claimed that the Western military alliance was not waging war in Yugoslavia.
"We are conducting a military operation to achieve a political and diplomatic aim," he said.