WASHINGTON -- President Clinton said yesterday that NATO could allow a "pause" in the bombing of Yugoslavia if the Serbs "at least begin" to withdraw their forces from Kosovo and accept an international force to protect ethnic Albanians.

In a more vigorous push for a diplomatic solution, Clinton hinted that NATO is prepared to show new flexibility in ending the war. He spoke as diplomats from the United States, Russia and other major powers neared agreement on terms that would allow for a United Nations-approved protectorate in Kosovo.

These new terms would give Russia and other countries outside NATO a larger role in a planned NATO-led security force that would enter Kosovo after Yugoslavia had met NATO's conditions for ending the bombing. Russia could have the major role in areas where Serbs predominate.

The stepped-up diplomacy in Washington and Europe came as a NATO bombs and missiles struck yesterday at a wider range of targets in Yugoslavia. The heightened intensity, intended to increase pressure on the government of President Slobodan Milosevic, is having a growing effect on Serbian civilians as bombs have knocked out power and strayed into residential zones.

Speaking at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, Clinton cited points that offered room for negotiation.

"We have lived through now nearly a decade of a systematic attempt to uproot, subjugate and destroy people because of their ethnic and religious heritage," he said. "And we could have a bombing pause if it's clear that it will be in aid of that larger purpose of reversing the Serbs' ethnic cleansing and return refugees to an autonomous Kosovo."

Clinton met late yesterday with Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, Moscow's special envoy to the Balkans, who is trying to mediate the conflict but has been unable to wring concessions from Milosevic.

The White House meeting opened a week of U.S. diplomacy that will include a midweek presidential trip to Germany and Brussels, Belgium, even as the NATO bombing rages on.

"We're getting closer to a diplomatic solution," Chernomyrdin said after meeting with Clinton. "We had a very substantial discussion. We will continue that discussion. It's a very complicated issue. We will keep on working." He was to meet last night with Vice President Al Gore.

After the 90-minute meeting, a senior White House official said: "The Russian position is closer to ours than Milosevic's. We share the firm view that it is essential that the Kosovar Albanians be able to return with security. We have to create conditions in which the Kosovar Albanians can come home."

Seeking 'durable peace'

Clinton told Chernomyrdin the situation required "a durable peace," the official said.

The White House meeting marked one of several efforts by the United States and its European allies to gain renewed Russian cooperation on the Balkans and pull Moscow from its Serbian allies. But a senior administration official cautioned: "These discussions with the Russians, with our allies, will continue over some days and weeks. This is not something that will result in some magical breakthrough in the next nanosecond."

While focusing attention on Chernomyrdin, the White House tried to nudge the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson into the background and to cut short the civil rights leader's efforts to mediate the conflict.

Jackson met with Clinton at the White House for more than an hour one day after obtaining the release of the three U.S. soldiers who were captured May 24 by Yugoslav forces along the Macedonian border. He carried a letter from Milosevic that U.S. officials rejected as containing little new.

Speaking to reporters, Jackson suggested that Clinton should make direct contact with Milosevic by calling to thank him for the release of the prisoners. He urged the release of two prisoners held by NATO to Serbian religious figures.

Jackson said such a phone call would be a small gesture comparable to last night's Orioles-Cuba game, one that might lead to broader diplomatic efforts.

"We have the power to fight," Jackson said. "The question is, do we have the strength to negotiate?"

A senior White House official, briefing reporters, rejected the idea of a phone call but did not rule out some reciprocal gesture, such as a prisoner release, saying: "That is a matter we've been considering for some time."

Over the weekend, Jackson called for NATO to reciprocate for the POWs' release with a pause in the bombing. He said in a television interview yesterday that by refusing, NATO demonstrates an "arrogance of power."

Clinton suggests terms

At his news conference, Clinton retorted: "Our air campaign cannot stop until Mr. Milosevic shows he is ready to end the nightmare for the people of Kosovo." While rejecting Jackson's proposal, Clinton spoke for the first time of the possibility of a "bombing pause," spelling out his conditions.

But Clinton did not shift U.S. policy substantively. The same terms had been spelled out by NATO as conditions for a bombing "suspension."

"I think there has to be a clear commitment to let the Kosovars come home, to withdraw the Serb security forces and permit an international security force that has a mandate to protect Albanians and the minority Serbs who live in Kosovo, and an understanding that the Kosovars will have self-government, an autonomy, as they had under the previous constitution," Clinton said.

"The withdrawal of [Serb] forces must at least begin so we know that we are not just stopping based on someone saying something," he added.

But Clinton seemed intent yesterday on appearing open to negotiation. Beyond NATO's insistence on five basic terms for ending the conflict, "there is a great deal to be decided and a lot to talk about," Clinton said.

With Congress deeply split on continuing the air war and with the increased intensity of NATO's attacks creating a greater risk of casualties and loss of aircraft, the pressure is growing on Clinton to achieve a settlement.

Earlier yesterday, diplomats from the eight major industrialized countries, including the United States and Russia, reached a tentative accord in Bonn, Germany, on the key principles of a political settlement for the conflict, diplomats said. If this deal sticks, it would serve to further isolate Milosevic.

Once this framework is approved by foreign ministers of the eight, possibly by Thursday, diplomats would start trying to have it approved by the United Nations Security Council.

Key to the discussions in Washington and Bonn yesterday was the role and composition of the international force that would enter Kosovo to make the province safe for hundreds of thousands of refugees to return.

U.S. and other NATO leaders have stopped insisting that the alliance lead peacekeepers, though their use of the term NATO "core" amounts to the same thing: NATO command and control.

"We're not going to participate unless NATO is at the core," said the senior White House official.

Russia, which regarded NATO as an enemy for 40 years, objects to a dominant NATO role. NATO officials say the force might have to fight against pockets of Serbian resistance in Kosovo.

Diplomats in Bonn yesterday used a new name for the force that makes it more palatable to the Russians, calling it an "international civil and security presence." More significant was a division of labor that is being developed between Russia and NATO.

Fears of partitioning

A senior U.S. official said yesterday that it was "possible if not likely" that soldiers from Russia and Ukraine would predominate in areas of Kosovo where ethnic Serbs are in the majority.

This worries some Balkan experts because it seems to point the way to a "partition" of Kosovo that NATO leaders have insisted they would not accept.

"The day before the real bargaining begins, what you will be hearing is mumbling about partition," says Daniel Serwer of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

But the senior U.S. official insisted that the arrangement for troop deployment was not a move toward partition. "There would still be NATO at the core, and the administration of the territory [covers] all the territory," the official said.

The White House official stressed the importance of insisting on a complete withdrawal of Serbian forces from the province.

"A partial withdrawal is a prescription for a new civil war between the returning Albanian presence, heavily armed presumably, and a residual Serb police force. Unless we have a robust security presence, there's no way Kosovo remains part of Serbia."

Pub Date: 5/04/99