U.S. Envoy: No Change In Kosovo

U.S. bombers moved into position for possible NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia and a U.S. envoy accelerated talks with President Slobodan Milosevic on Sunday after reporting no change in the leader's tough stand on Kosovo.

Richard Holbrooke and Milosevic met into the night Sunday, meeting for the sixth time in seven days in talks that signaled U.S. determination to search for a peaceful way out of the deadlock.

Holbrooke said early Sunday that he would "continue an intense effort to find a peaceful, acceptable, fully verifiable compliance system as an alternative to the other choice" meaning the use of force.

But he also said NATO would meet Monday to authorize action if his mediation effort fails.

The Americans and Europeans are demanding that Milosevic halt the crackdown he launched Feb. 28 against the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army.

The major obstacle appears to be Holbrooke's demand that Milosevic agree to an expanded international monitoring mission to verify compliance with demands of the U.N. Security Council.

Those demands include an immediate cease-fire, a withdrawal of special troops in the province, allowing refugees to return home and beginning talks with ethnic Albanians on Kosovo's future.

Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the main republic of Yugoslavia. About 90 percent of its 2 million people are ethnic Albanian, and most of them want independence or substantial self-rule.

International efforts to end the seven-month crisis have accelerated following allegations that Serb police massacred scores of ethnic Albanian refugees. Concern is mounting that winter will bring a humanitarian disaster if thousands remain homeless by the first snowfall.

Richard Holbrooke

The positioning of more U.S. planes within range and preparing them for attacks were clearly designed to convince Milosevic of Washington's resolve to force compliance with U.N. demands.

The Serb's refusal to agree to increased foreign monitoring to ensure they meet with U.N. conditions has proved the major sticking point in negotiations, reports CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey.

"We meanwhile will continue an intense effort to find a peaceful, acceptable solution that is fully verifiable to the compliance system," Holbrooke said.

B-52s landing in England to threaten air strikes may make NATO feel powerful, and even give the Serb leadership a case of nerves, but for ethnic Albanian refugees, they provide no comfort.

We need a foreign state to guarantee our security, because we don't trust the Serb side and someone's got to be here to guarantee our security," one refugee said.

The town of Pagarusa, where the market used to thrive, is only a few miles away. Now, it is occupied by Serb police and no ethnic Albanian dares return.

The only symbol of security this market has seen is the occasional passing vehicle from KDOM, the international diplomatic observer mission.

The handful of observers are there to be the eyes and ears of the diplomats trying to decide whether or not the Serbs are complying with United Nations resolutions.

The area is relatively quiet by day, and the Serb police and army have not been here for some time. People feel secure enough to come to what use to be a community pool to clean rugs salvaged from their burned-out homes, but they do it with one eye over their shoulder.

"We're not secure here," one man said. "We can be attacked at any time."

If the bombings start, there will be nowhere safe to go.

Meanwhile, journalists heard sporadic gunfire Sunday and saw white and gray smoke rising from about six houses in the ethnic Albanian village of Makrmalj, about 20 miles west of Pristina.

Ethnic Albanian rebels claimed the activity was part of a Serb police operation. Police prevented the journalists from getting closer than about a half-mile from the village.