War in The Balkans: Most Serb military still undamaged, admits Nato

Air Strikes

MORE THAN two-thirds of Serbia's tanks and heavy artillery inside Kosovo are still intact, Nato admitted yesterday, raising the prospect of many weeks of further bombardment before the military capacity of President Slobodan Milosevic is rendered ineffective.

Despite greater success in the last two weeks of the air campaign and reports of discipline beginning to disintegrate, Nato concedes that the Serbs still have a formidable fighting force left in Kosovo.

After 57 days of concerted bombing an estimated total of 40,000 troops and paramilitaries remain in the province with 69 per cent of their tanks and heavy equipment intact.

Even these figures are open to doubt because Nato's military spokesman, General Walter Jertz, said yesterday that the alliance had "struck" - rather than destroyed - 31 per cent of Serbia's heavy forces, a nuance which means there is no evidence of destruction.

The statistics illustrate the distance Nato is from launching a successful ground invasion of Kosovo, even if it could muster the political will to assemble one. At the current rate of destruction - 5 per cent a week - the allies would need to bomb for another month before Serb forces could be close to breaking point. But there is some doubt as to whether Nato's existing rate of destruction inside Kosovo can be kept up .

At the same time, Nato has sharply revised up the number of troops it will need to keep the peace in Kosovo, as it moves to accelerate the planning for a force.The US confirmed yesterday that the force would have to be nearly twice its original size, as it shifted further towards a discussion of the need for infantry on the ground.

America is closing the rift with Britain over the despatch of ground troops ahead of today's visit to Washington by Robin Cook. The Pentagon confirmed that Nato's guiding North Atlantic Council was considering a plan to put 45-50,000 troops into Kosovo. The US would provide approximately 7,000 of these troops. Other military sources said that a batch of some 15,000 troops from Nato countries would be sent to Macedonia and Albania in the next month to beef up the troops already there. While the US still says in private that American troops will only enter Kosovo as part of a peacekeeping force, it is being more careful not to rule out other options in public.

Mr Cook will meet Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and leading members of Congress today. In a display of transatlantic unity, he will also appear on several television shows with Ms Albright.