NATO Extends Kosovo Deadline

NATO extended Saturday's deadline for Yugoslavia to come into compliance with terms of a peace deal on Kosovo, giving President Slobodan Milosevic until Oct. 27 to honor the agreement.

NATO officials said the allies wanted to keep the force of about 400 warplanes ready for possible airstrikes, despite the Kosovo deal struck this week with Serb authorities.

"We are still at some distance from full compliance," NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said in Brussels, Belgium, adding the alliance had "clear evidence" that an unacceptable number of Serb troops and police remained in the province.

The extension was expected to be granted, giving both the Yugoslavs and the peace process more time in light of this week's steps toward compliance.

On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said the allies had reliable information that Yugoslav army units based outside Kosovo still had not been withdrawn from the Serbian province.

Observers in the field said they had spotted fresh Yugoslav security forces heading into Kosovo.

"Obviously there's a range of things that need to be done to come into compliance," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters Thursday.

He said Yugoslavia had begun to allow humanitarian agencies into Kosovo to relieve the plight of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians displaced by a Serb offensive.

"But I don't think there's anyone who believes he has come into compliance," Lockhart said.

Earlier in the week, the State Department also condemned Milosevic and other leaders in Belgrade for closing down two independent Serbian daily newspapers, several radio stations and threatening other media outlets.

Spokesman James Rubin said that despite Milosevic's public statement that an accord was reached to eliminate the "danger of (NATO) military intervention," the two newspapers were closed for inciting "fear, panic and defeatism" and "undermining the readiness of citizens to defend" their country.

"The United States strongly condemns the actions of President Milosevic and the Belgrade leadership," Rubin said in a statement.

He called the incidents part of an "ongoing campaign against free expression" and warned that only by establishing a democracy, including a free media and a vibrant civil society, will Serbia ultimately "reconnect itself with the family of European states."