Saturday, May 15, 1999 Published at 16:48 GMT 17:48 UK
Crack troops prepare for Kosovo
The RAF Tornados are adding to reinforcements
Britain is preparing another 2,300 troops for possible deployment in the Balkans.
The UK is also sending another 12 RAF Tornados from their base at Bruggen in Germany to be based in Corsica where they will be nearer their targets.
Armed Forces Minister Doug Henderson said: "It is prudent planning for the successful end to the air campaign."
Most of the troops were originally sent to Macedonia as the vanguard of a peacekeeping force in neighbouring Kosovo, but some have been diverted to Albania to help set up camps for refugees from the war in the Yugoslav province.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said Britain had pledged at the outset some 8,000 troops to a Kosovo peacekeeping force.
Mr Henderson said Friday's Nato attack on the Kosovo village of Korisa, which the Serbs claim killed scores of civilians, was aimed at a military target. Reiterating Nato's earlier statement, he said he "deeply regretted" the incident.
"If there is any doubt that civilians are at risk, planes move away without dropping their weapons. They are still working on those tight guidelines."
Admiral Sir Peter Abbott said Friday's bombing campaign saw "intensive activities" with almost 600 sorties flown against "strategic and tactical targets".
Mr Henderson defended Nato's strategy, saying that anyone who felt it was "not wise" may change their minds if they met the refugees.
"I saw children in the Brazde camp in Macedonia," he said.
He also said he spoke to a grandmother at the camp who said she wept as she described the shooting of five young men by Serb troops after they refused to leave their village.