Saturday, January 30, 1999 Published at 00:20 GMT
Three-week deadline over Kosovo
United front: Contact Group spells out its demands on Kosovo
International foreign ministers have given warring Serbs and ethnic Albanians just three weeks to reach a deal to end the conflict in the troubled province of Kosovo or face possible military force.
The Contact Group chairman, UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, summoned both sides in the Kosovo conflict to meet for talks within a week. The Serbs and Albanians have been given a total of three weeks from Friday to finalise a peace deal.
International monitors in Kosovo say 25 men have been found shot dead in the western village of Rogovo.
They included a Serb policeman and three fighters of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army.
'Bomb to avenge KLA deaths'
Later a bomb exploded near a cafe frequented by Serbs in the capital, Pristina injuring seven people. The police said they found a message at the scene saying the bomb was to avenge KLA deaths.
"In the subsequent police operation 24 Albanians were killed. Three were in KLA uniform and the rest were in civilian clothes."
After three months in which there had been no talks between the two sides to negotiate a political outcome, the international community appears to have lost patience.
His strong words were echoed by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. "We have sent the parties an unmistakable message - 'Get serious'. Showing up is not going to be good enough", she said.
Threat of force
Earlier Nato warned the proposals would be imposed by force if negotiations were not opened within a few days.
Britain, France and Germany have underpinned Nato's warning by saying they were prepared to send ground troops to Kosovo to enforce a negotiated settlement.
Later on Friday, President Clinton said the US and its allies were united behind the international political process, and were "ready to back that strategy with the threat of force".
Proposals for peace
Mr Cook is to fly to Yugoslavia to reinforce the Contact Group's demand to the Belgrade authorities and ethnic Albanian leaders in Pristina to sit down to peace talks.
The Contact Group's proposals have received a mixed welcome from the two sides themselves.
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic indirectly rejected an international conference on Kosovo, calling instead for direct talks between all ethnic communities in the province.
Earlier Serbian Deputy Information Minister Miodrag Popovic welcomed the talks, but said Serbia's forces could not observe a ceasefire - a precondition set by ethnic Albanian leaders.
Moderate Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova said he would send representatives to the peace talks in France, but was not yet sure if he himself would go.
Ahead of the London meeting, a report in The Washington Post newspaper alleged that the 40 ethnic Albanians found dead in the village of Racak were killed by regular security forces acting on the orders of Belgrade.
Yugoslav authorities have maintained that the victims were ethnic Albanian guerillas who died in combat with Serb forces, and that the bodies were moved by the KLA and made to look like the victims of a civilian massacre.