World

Close To The Brink In Kosovo

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 7, 1998 / 7:12 PM EDT / CBS

Warning Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that "time is all but gone," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Thursday that NATO is ready to take a decisive step toward ordering an aerial attack against the Serbs over their actions in Kosovo.

Albright told reporters that "in the next few days," the North Atlantic Council, the political arm of NATO, would agree on an activation order. That would authorize Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the supreme commander, to order an attack on the Serbs.

"I am confident we have the legitimate grounds," Albright said.

However, CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports that some progress may have been made Thursday toward a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Serb president Slobodan Milosevic has apparently accepted a demand that international observers be posted in Kosovo to make sure that Serb troops do not return to the province.

The haggling that remained Thursday was reportedly over whether the observers should be diplomats or soldiers.

The suggestion of a possible deal on observers comes after special U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke was dispatched to Belgrade once again Thursday.

Holbooke is trying to persuade Milosevic to accept international demands to pull his military out of the separatist province and guarantee safety for ethnic Albanians.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said Albright would urge NATO to formally authorize military action against Serb targets if Milosevic continued to resist the international demands.

Earlier this week, Milosevic responded hawkishly to U.S. pressure and issued a statement saying "the threats which are delivered to our country jeopardize the continuation of the political process."

The U.S. is may be prepared to contribute everything from cruise missiles to the B-2 stealth bomber for such an attack.

Wednesday, NATO was supposed to have authorized air strikes, but that decision was postponed until Saturday at the earliest. Even then, President Clinton will still have to give another order for American forces to actually carry out the strikes.