Wednesday, April 14, 1999 Published at 22:05 GMT 23:05 UK
Milosevic breaks silence
Serbs shout anti-Nato slogans in a Belgrade protest
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has made a rare live television appearance on Wednesday in which he ruled out foreign involvement in a solution to the situation in Kosovo.
"The problems have to be resolved by the people who live in the province, not by outsiders imposing any kind of solution," Mr Milosevic said.
Negotiations for a political solution "are already being conducted directly" with Kosovo's community leaders, said the Yugoslav president.
He said that the approach being taken was "multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-confessional".
Milosevic warms to Belarus
Mr Milosevic's televised speech came soon after his meeting with the Belarusian President, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, in Belgrade.
According to Mr Milosevic, the Yugoslavian Federal Assembly has unanimously passed a decision to have the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia join the Russia-Belarus Union.
"I expect Presidents Lukashenka and Yeltsin to initiate the process that will lead to the realisation of the union in accordance with the interests of the peoples of the countries involved," said President Milosevic.
"We believe that this alliance will demonstrate its vitality in the years to come and at the beginning of the century that is before us," he added.
The Yugoslavian president also used the occasion to denounce Nato's bombing campaign as "murderous".
"It violates all human rights and all norms of the international legal order," he said.