Nato leaders reasserted their united stance over the Balkan conflict as the alliance's 50th anniversary summit began in Washington yesterday, vowing to press ahead with the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, preparing for possible ground operations in Kosovo and rejecting as inadequate the peace feelers from President Slobodan Milosevic.
With the presidents and prime ministers of all 19 Nato member states gathered under one roof for the first time since the military offensive against Yugoslavia began a month ago, the allies spent three hours discussing the crisis in Kosovo before reiterating their conditions for an end to the conflict, with President Bill Clinton declaring: 'When we fight, we fight to prevail.'
The display of unity masked unease about the Nato strike on the headquarters of Serbia's state television station, in which at least 10 people were killed and dozens injured.
Italy's foreign minister, Lamberto Dini, last night condemned the attack, claiming the bombing of the TV station was not in Nato's plans: 'It is terrible and I disapprove of it.'
Tony Blair said the attack was 'entirely justified'. Speaking after a Washington breakfast meeting with Germany's chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, Mr Blair said 'These television stations are part of the apparatus and power of Milosevic. This is the apparatus he has used to do the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. It is the apparatus that keeps him in power and we are entirely justified as Nato allies in damaging and taking on those targets.'
The strike was condemned by the National Union of Journalists, the European Broadcasting Union and the International Federation of Journalists.
The united reiteration of Nato's aims and conditions in the Balkans came as allied planes stepped up the bombing campaign by attacking the previously off limits television buildings, and as the British and American governments took the lead in planning the eventual dispatch of a military force to Kosovo.
In spite of misgivings from some partners, notably Greece, whose prime minister said yesterday that prolonged bombing of Yugoslavia could turn his nation against the alliance and the US, Nato also rejected the eight-point peace proposal which emerged from a meeting in Belgrade on Thursday between President Milosevic and the Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin.
The plan fell 'well short' of Nato's conditions for an end to the conflict, spokesman Jamie Shea said. The French president, Jacques Chirac, said the offer 'does not correspond to the demands of the international community'.
But Mr Chernomyrdin's initiative still seemed to have life in it yesterday, with the envoy telling journalists that talks with Nato about a possible peace plan were continuing by telephone yesterday. Russia is officially boycotting the Washington summit.
With anniversary pomp and ceremony reduced to a minimum because of Kosovo, much of the behind the scenes diplomatic discussion was taken up with trying to ensure that Nato spoke with one voice on Kosovo, British and American sources confirmed. Nato leaders were briefed in closed session by the alliance's supreme commander for Europe, General Wesley Clark, who told them that Mr Milosevic was on the ropes.
A draft statement called for the intensification of the bombing and the imposition of stronger sanctions, including a tightened oil embargo, as well as reiterating conditions for Nato to stop its campaign.
'The important meeting took place on Wednesday,' said a White House source, referring to the two-hour White House meeting between Mr Clinton and Mr Blair where they agreed their summit tactics. 'The job for this weekend is to keep the coalition together at every turn.'
Mr Clinton emphasised the unity theme in his speeches at various stages of the summit yesterday. The allies were in agreement 'to stand firm in our conditions for ending it; to pursue diplomatic initiatives to meet those conditions; to increase political and economic pressure against the regime in Belgrade,' he told the opening session.
The conditions under which Nato ground forces might enter Kosovo were the principal subject of discussion at the summit's emergency discussion of Kosovo.
Mr Clinton has cautiously begun to speak of the possibility of an international force moving into Kosovo, without Mr Milosevic's approval.