Milosevic Gives

Warning As NATO

Readies Kosovo

Force

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslav President

Slobodan Milosevic warned NATO Sunday

not to venture into Kosovo, throwing doubt

over the role of a high-tech ``protection

force'' in neighboring Macedonia.

Combat troops and engineers from the

French-led force set up camps across

Macedonia at the weekend, erecting

self-contained command modules, sleeping

containers and communication pods for

their mission.

Backed by helicopter gunships, transport

helicopters and armored personnel carriers,

they are there to rescue international

monitors from Kosovo if a truce between

Yugoslav security forces and ethnic

Albanian guerrillas breaks down.

U.S. Balkans envoy Richard Holbrooke,

who, with the backing of a threat of NATO

airstrikes, persuaded Milosevic to pull back

Serb forces from Kosovo, said Sunday he

was worried by violations of the truce by

both Serbian police and ethnic Albanian

guerrillas.

But in an rare newspaper interview

published Sunday, Milosevic himself backed

up what the Serbian government has

already said -- that there was no need for

the NATO force and that it would be

regarded as hostile if it entered Kosovo.

``If they come onto our territory, we will

consider it as an act of aggression,'' he told

the Washington Post.

``That is the duty of our army -- not to allow

any foreign troops to get into our territory.''

By their own account, the troops are there

as a last resort, to provide security which

would in the first instance be the

responsibility of Belgrade.

The monitors, due to number 2,000 by the

end of the month, are part of a Kosovo

Verification Mission which Milosevic agreed

to during the talks with Holbrooke.

In a deal finalized on October 13, Milosevic

said he would withdraw many of his forces

from the province, ending a fierce offensive

against the population, and allow in the

``verifiers'' as long as they were unarmed.

The Serbian government said the two men

also agreed on a framework for an

autonomy plan for the province, where the

ethnic Albanian majority is demanding

independence after 10 years of harsh direct

rule from Belgrade.

But efforts by another U.S. envoy,

Christopher Hill, to marry a Serb vision of

autonomy with that of the ethnic Albanians

have become bogged down.

Hill is planning to visit Belgrade and the

Kosovo capital Pristina this week to try to

press home the message from the

international community that it is time the

two sides reached a compromise.

Holbrooke said Sunday he may also come

to Belgrade, amid growing fears that if a

political settlement cannot be reached by

spring, fighting will resume.

``Ambassador Hill is continuing his

marathon efforts to mediate between

Albanians and Yugoslav authorities. It is

extremely difficult, both sides are dug in on

very tough positions,'' Holbrooke told

Reuters TV at a meeting between Turkish

Cypriot and Greek Cypriot businessmen in

Istanbul.

``We are concerned that there has been

some failure in compliance on both sides.

We want to revitalize and re-emphasize the

process,'' he said.

Reut13:05 12-13-98