PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - The latest

U.S.-drafted peace proposals for the

separatist Serbian province of Kosovo, torn

by ethnic fighting for most of this year,

came under fire Monday from both sides.

A leading ethnic Albanian politician said the

latest version of the autonomy plan was a

step backwards for the ethnic Albanian

majority, while a Serb source said it did not

go far enough to allay Belgrade's concerns.

U.S. mediator Christopher Hill has shuttled

to and fro for months seeking a

compromise between ethnic Albanian

demands for independence for Kosovo and

Belgrade's insistence it stay under Serbian

control.

Hill handed the latest draft to Serbian

President Milan Milutinovic Thursday in

Belgrade. Friday diplomats handed a copy

to the ethnic Albanian negotiating team in

Pristina, capital of the province, where a

truce is under growing strain.

Members of the ethnic Albanian team said

they would issue a response later this

week. But one leading political figure, not on

the team, indicated it would be negative.

``The newest version of the draft is a step

backwards,'' said Mehmet Hajrizi, secretary

of the ethnic Albanian United Democratic

Movement.

``With this draft the Serbian government

obtains lots of prerogatives that it didn't

have in the last draft,'' he was quoted as

saying in the ethnic Albanian daily Kosovo

Sot.

A Serbian source said, however, that the

latest changes, drawn up after comments

from both sides, still gave the province too

much autonomy.

``The changes are cosmetic and no one

should be fooled by them,'' the source, who

declined to be named, told Reuters.

``The authority of the constitutional court

was limited by the new proposals, but it still

exists, which means that the entity can still

be seen as a republic.''

Hill's proposals avoid mention of a final

status for Kosovo, but Belgrade fears that if

takes on the attributes of a republic during

an interim period it will end up breaking

away, as four of the six republics in former

Yugoslavia have done.

The ethnic Albanian majority, for its part,

fears continued control by Serbia following a

devastating armed clampdown on

separatism which drove more than a

quarter of a million people from their homes

earlier this year.

The campaign only ended after NATO

threatened airstrikes against Yugoslavia in

October, forcing President Slobodan

Milosevic to withdraw many of his forces

and allow the refugees to start returning to

their shattered homes.

The international community, concerned

about the safety of hundreds of unarmed

``verifiers'' who are pouring into Kosovo to

police the truce, is pressing for a settlement

before spring, when a thaw is widely

expected to encourage renewed fighting.

Reut05:45 12-07-98

(07 Dec 1998 05:44 EST)