WASHINGTON -- NATO leaders, dismissing a peace feeler from Slobodan Milosevic, vowed yesterday to intensify bombing of Serbian targets and took the first steps to strengthen a planned security force that would be sent into a weakened Yugoslavia.
In a day that combined war planning with a solemn commemoration of NATO's 50th anniversary, the Defense Department dispatched an additional 2,050 U.S. troops to the Yugoslav border while leaders of the 19 alliance countries declared they would reverse Milosevic's "ethnic cleansing" of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.
"We will not allow this campaign of terror to succeed. NATO is determined to prevail," they said in a communique.
Hours earlier, NATO struck Serbian state television, knocking the nation's main source of news off the air for several hours. A Yugoslav government minister, Goran Matic, said 10 people were killed in the airstrike; up to 20 were believed still buried in the debris and up to 19 others were injured.
Officials at first gave conflicting justifications for the attack, but by day's end the United States, Britain and a NATO spokesman had said the same thing: Radio Television Serbia was a legitimate target because it spews destructive propaganda.
But Pentagon spokesman Kenneth H. Bacon referred to TV sites as "dual-use facilities thatpowered command and control and other military facilities in the area."
The target choice drew criticism from Italy, which is participating in the air war. Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini said the attack on Serbian TV was "terrible" and was "not in the plans."
Meanwhile, the more top officials learned about a Yugoslav peace proposal conveyed Thursday through former Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, the more they rejected it as insufficient.
"The conditions aren't acceptable," said French President Jacques Chirac.
Yugoslav Deputy Foreign Minister Nebojsa Vujovic said Milosevic only backs allowing a United Nations "unarmed presence a U.N. observer presence." NATO insists on a well-armed security force with a NATO "core" -- basically, a NATO command structure.
Responding to news reports that Chernomyrdin planned to present the offer in Washington, officials gently urged him not to come. Late yesterday, Russia sent word that he would be staying home.
"We are quite clear that we want to maintain dialogue with Russia. I am not myself necessarily clear that that is best done in the context of this summit, but the bridges are open to Russia, the doors are open, and we will be pursuing dialogue with them," said British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.
War dominates summit
The summit, held in the spare, cavernous new Ronald Reagan Building, was originally billed as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the alliance, created to cement European and U.S. security against the Cold War threat.
But the first day was almost entirely taken over by the war against Yugoslavia, NATO's first major conflict. The only purely celebratory event was a solemn ceremony in the ornate Customs Building auditorium in which the heads of state or government from each of the 19 member countries gave a five-minute speech hailing NATO's achievement. Even a party at the White House last night was labeled a working dinner.
A month of airstrikes has failed to prevent Serbian forces from driving out hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and killing thousands more inside the country.
But the leaders resisted growing pressure to send in ground troops. Instead, they reaffirmed their faith in air power and called for a greater range and intensity of bombing.
"We are intensifying NATO's military actions to increase the pressure on Belgrade," the leaders said in a communique.
"Experience has shown one must be stronger," said Chirac. Therefore, he urged military commanders to increase the number of strikes and diversify the targets to diminish the Serbs' command-and-control apparatus.
His statement signaled that the alliance will soon move to a full Phase 3 of the four-phased airstrike program. Phase 3 calls for hitting command-and-control sites throughout Yugoslavia.
A NATO diplomat conceded yesterday that military planners "can always find something, a radio transmitter, a satellite dish," to identify a target as a command-and-control facility.
"Really, we're going after Milosevic's power structure," the diplomat said.
Although no one emphasized the point, an intensification of the air campaign seemed likely to increase the risk of civilian casualties, as may have occurred yesterday, and the risk of downed allied aircraft.
NATO's supreme commander, Gen. Wesley K. Clark, told reporters that the monthlong air campaign has paid off. He said it had left Yugoslav air defenses ineffective and created a fuel crisis for Serbian forces.
"It's true that President Milosevic has shown a willingness to accept a high level of damage. But the FRY [Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] military and security forces and their supporting infrastructure have been significantly damaged. They are vulnerable to collapse. In short, we're winning, he's losing and he knows it," Clark said.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, whose country has opposed military action but continued to cooperate with NATO, said prolonged bombing of Yugoslavia could turn his nation against NATO and the United States.
"The more the war continues, the more difficult the problems will be," he said.
Sending ground troops was not on the agenda, and some officials came close to ruling it out altogether.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that "the debate about ground troops is off the table. No ground troops."
International security force
But the allies stepped up preparations for an international security force that could eventually enter Yugoslavia whether there is complete peace or not.
British Defense Secretary George Robertson indicated that the force could be substantially bigger than the 28,000 planned when the allies anticipated a formal peace agreement between Yugoslavia and Kosovar rebels.
The Defense Department announced last night that it will send an additional 2,050 troops to Albania to support the 24 Apache helicopters deployed near the Kosovo border. The deployment will bring the number of U.S. forces in Albania to 5,350.
The new troops will be backed by some formidable firepower, including 15 Abrams tanks, 14 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, eight howitzers, nine multiple-launch rocket-system vehicles and a short-range air-defense battery. A construction engineering company and a combat engineer platoon will also be dispatched to help get the firepower over the treacherous roads to northern Albania.
Army Col. Richard M. Bridges, a Pentagon spokesman, said the forces are expected to remain on the Albanian side of the border; but, he said, it is possible they could be added to a peacekeeping force.
Publicly, the top NATO leaders backed NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana's decision to rework contingency plans and offered a clearer definition of how ground troops could enter the war.
Whereas in the past President Clinton has said U.S. ground troops would only enter a "permissive" environment, this no longer means a totally passive environment, officials say.
"Serb forces would not be posing any resistance to an incoming international security force," NATO spokesman Jamie P. Shea said. The security force could do its job "with the least hindrance and with the maximum chances of very rapid success."
After his briefing, Shea emphasized that a permissive environment no longer needs to include permission from Milosevic for a peacekeeping presence.
"A permissive environment would be one in which the government in Belgrade either would accept its presence or acquiesce to its presence," White House national security adviser Samuel R. Berger said of an international peacekeeping force. "And that is pretty straightforward."
Berger did, however, leave open the possibility of having to go in without Milosevic's assent. Privately, NATO sources have said the security force could face pockets of Serbian resistance by paramilitary forces even after weeks of bombing have driven out the bulk of the Yugoslav military.
Oil embargo backed
To increase pressure on Belgrade, the alliance backed an oil embargo against Yugoslavia along the lines of one approved by the European Union. However, its members did not call for a U.N.-enforced embargo, which could face a veto by Russia.
And France prevailed against imposing a naval blockade against deliveries of oil or weapons to Yugoslavia through the port of Bar in Montenegro, an autonomous Yugoslav republic that has come under mounting pressure from Serbia.
Instead, the allies directed defense ministers to look for ways to halt the delivery of war materiel, "including by launching maritime operations, taking into account the possible consequences on Montenegro."
Chirac told reporters he had pressed hard for the alliance to plan airdrops of food and relief supplies to the many thousands of displaced people in Kosovo. Military leaders oppose the idea as dangerous to people on the ground and to low-flying relief aircraft.
The NATO communique said the alliance would suspend airstrikes once Belgrade accepted its conditions, including the return of refugees and the presence of an international security force, and "demonstrably begin to withdraw its forces" according to a timetable.
While it said this move "could follow" a U.N. Security Council resolution, it doesn't commit the alliance to seeking one. Officials apparently remain wary that Russia, which holds a U.N. veto, could intervene on Yugoslavia's side.
"That doesn't mean that if we don't get it, we won't go ahead," said Berger.