Holbrooke

In this story:

• Security Council declares no full compliance
• 'A decisive moment in the history of the Balkans'
• Yugoslav troops moving outside Kosovo
• Cohen: troop pullback not enough to avert strike
• Albania offers sites for NATO strike bases

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Warning that the "decisive moment" was approaching, a senior U.S. envoy has scheduled more talks on Wednesday with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in a bid to persuade him to withdraw from Kosovo and avoid NATO airstrikes.

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Milosevic has remained defiant through two meetings, during which Richard Holbrooke attempted to convince him Washington was equally firm in demanding that he comply with U.N. resolutions or face military action.

"It wasn't a good meeting," a diplomat familiar with the deliberations said after Tuesday's talks.

"It seems to me the grimmest situation we've faced in this region," the diplomat said.

"Kosovo is more important (to Milosevic) than Bosnia," said another diplomatic source on condition of anonymity. "The American people do not understand that because Bosnia was so much bloodier."

Hours after the Holbrooke-Milosevic meetings on Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council declared Tuesday night that combatants have not complied fully with U.N. resolutions demanding a cease-fire in Kosovo and special Serb police units have failed to withdraw from the province.

Although it doesn't carry any legal weight, the declaration of noncompliance could fuel calls for military intervention. Council president, British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, read the statement late Tuesday after the council met for more than seven hours to discuss the Kosovo crisis.

The council noted that military activity in Kosovo had appeared to decrease recently, but Greenstock said that Belgrade's armed presence in Kosovo "remained significant" and the operations of the special police continued after the council's latest demands for a cease-fire.

The fact that Milosevic agreed to a third meeting on Wednesday with Holbrooke indicated there was still a chance for agreement.

"Right now, we are in the countdown to a decisive moment in the history of the Balkans," Holbrooke told CNN.

The United States has threatened military action unless Milosevic calls off his bloody crackdown on ethnic Albanian rebels seeking independence from Serbia, the main republic of Yugoslavia.

Milosevic's seven-month crackdown against the secessionists has killed hundreds, left tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians homeless and led to growing resolve among NATO allies to stop the bloodshed by striking Yugoslav army targets if necessary.

Kosovo is a province of Serbia, but most ethnic Albanians, who form 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million, favor self-rule.

Holbrooke, who negotiated the 1995 peace agreement which ended the Bosnian conflict, met the Yugoslav president after a visit to Kosovo. Following a meeting with ethnic Albanian leaders, Holbrooke said that Serbian security forces still maintain a strong presence, despite U.N. demands for them to withdraw from areas of conflict and allow political settlement.

"U.S. diplomatic observers are doing a terrific job bringing us information, and the information they're bringing us is not good," Holbrooke told reporters in the Kosovo capital, Pristina.

A convoy of Serb police withdraws from Kosovo

Hours after Holbrooke left Kosovo for Belgrade, reporters saw about 100 Yugoslav military vehicles -- ranging from armored personnel carriers to trucks loaded with troops -- moving outside Kosovo. It was an apparent show of Milosevic's compliance with international demands that his forces pull far back from front-line areas.

Additionally, state-run Serbian television reported that all Serbian special police units, on the forefront of strikes against Kosovo Albanian militants, pulled out of the province.

"The stakes are high," U.S. President Bill Clinton said in Washington on Tuesday before Holbrooke met with Milosevic. "The time is now to end the violence in Kosovo."

Clinton said that Holbrooke was telling the Yugoslav leader "what he must do and to make clear that NATO is prepared to act if President Milosevic fails to honor the United Nations resolutions."

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen told Congress that a pullback of troops in Kosovo by Milosevic was not enough to ward off NATO attacks.

Any NATO air strikes might be followed by some kind of "international presence" on the ground, he said.

Cohen justified the prospective use of air power. "He (Milosevic) stands to lose a substantial portion of his military capability. ... There is a lot that can and will be done by air," Cohen said.

If more Serb forces don't pull out of the province as demanded, NATO intervention "will become inevitable," French President Jacques Chirac said.

However, Yugoslav Deputy Information Secretary Miodrag Popovic said that a complete withdrawal of Yugoslav troops is out of the question.

"Who in their right mind would do so? Is there a country in the world that would do so, especially with an armed rebellion on their hands?" Popovic asked.

Holbrooke, who negotiated the 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian war, was dispatched to the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade in what appeared to be a last-chance diplomatic effort.

NATO officials say they are ready to launch military strikes. No decision is expected until Thursday, when NATO ambassadors meet in Brussels.

Albania's foreign minister said Tuesday that his country has offered its ports and airports to NATO for use in any military operation against neighboring Yugoslavia.

"Albania has offered its support for such actions in Bosnia and will do so to support NATO's actions in Kosovo," Foreign Minister Paskal Milo told reporters in Albania's capital, Tirana.

But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told the Interfax news agency in Russia, a staunch ally of Serbia, that it would veto any move to approve NATO strikes on Yugoslavia by the U.N. Security Council.

The Canadian government announced Tuesday that it was flying out nonessential diplomatic personnel and their families from Yugoslavia. Other countries were expected to follow suit.

The United States is trying to get Milosevic and the ethnic Albanians to agree on a deal that would defer for two or three years a decision on whether Kosovo would separate from Serbia. But the ethnic Albanians have refused to negotiate with Milosevic, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright voiced skepticism that Milosevic would adhere to such a plan.

"We are dealing with someone we never trusted," Albright said.

The rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, whose attacks on Serb police prompted the crackdown, has rejected any peace formula short of full independence. The KLA has urged NATO to attack.

"The Serbian war machine and its military and political structure must be destroyed," said Adem Demaci, a politician who speaks for the rebels.

Correspondent Brent Sadler, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

"Kosovo: A Short History" by Noel Malcolm "Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo" by Miranda Vickers "Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo" by Roger Cohen "A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples" by Frederick Bernard Singleton "Unwinnable Wars: American Power and Ethnic Conflict" by David Callahan Click here for additional reading on Yugoslavia