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Around the World

Ethnic Alabanians to sign agreement

After more than five weeks of intense diplomatic pressure, the Kosovo Albanian delegation told international mediators yesterday they were ready to sign the peace accord that gives them wide political autonomy but not the vote on independence they wanted.

"This is not an ideal solution, but peace in Kosovo has no price," said Hashim Thaci, the head of the ethnic Albanian delegation to Paris, where a second round of peace talks had opened only hours before.

He told reporters they hoped to sign the agreement today. The French and British foreign ministers praised the decision and said it will heighten pressure on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to swallow the deal, which calls for NATO troops to enforce it.

"The Albanian side has shown real courage in convincing the people that it is necessary to make a compromise. We need the Serb side to show the same courage," said British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, co-chair of the talks along with French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.

The ethnic Albanians' earlier reluctance to sign the agreement led to the breakdown of the first round of talks last month and prevented NATO from carrying out threatened airstrikes if the Serbs failed to agree. With new fighting breaking out across Kosovo - a southern province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia, where ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the population - there are fears the conflict could lead to a wider war in the Balkans.

International monitors said seven Yugoslav army soldiers were wounded in fighting in the Vucitrn area yesterday and another was shot in the arm as he drove just north of the capital, Pristina.

In Washington, President Clinton called on Milosevic to follow the ethnic Albanians' lead "so we can avoid further conflict and bloodshed." He said NATO airstrikes are still possible.

"If he shows intransigence and aggression, I think that from our point of view we would have little option," Clinton said.

Serbian President Milan Milutinovic dismissed the Albanian announcement, saying "unilateral signing does not mean anything."

Asked whether NATO bombing of Serbia was now more likely, he responded: "This is not out of the question, but we are not afraid of that."

He repeated the Serb refusal to consider a military force - "No, no," he said. But he said the Serb side was working positively on the political aspect of a deal.

Militunovic claimed that during Monday's discussions, international mediators "excluded" three annexes on military implementation of the deal.

But the mediators and U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin denied Milutinovic's statement, which was apparently intended to make the deal more palatable for the Yugoslav public.

Vedrine said no major changes in the deal are possible, and warned the Serbs to speed up their decision.

"The Yugoslav authorities have their backs to the wall. It's up to them to choose now," he said. "Time is pressing."

Sources close to the Serb delegation have indicated they might try to stall the talks by proposing a three-month cease-fire in Kosovo or the deployment of unarmed, non-NATO, peacekeeping troops - something the West is sure to reject.

The international community has insisted that the military and political components are inseparable.

The agreement would amount to self-rule for the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. It would not give them a referendum on independence and would require the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army to disarm - something the rebels have found very hard to accept.

The Serbs have said they could accept political autonomy, but not some 28,000 NATO troops, including 4,000 Americans.

More than 2,000 people have died and 300,000 have fled their homes in the year of fighting in Kosovo between the secessionist rebels and Serbian security forces.

Serbia has massed about 14 brigades around Kosovo in recent weeks and fighting in the province itself has resulted in numerous casualties on both sides.

Sino-U.S. relations hurt partisanship

"China is fully capable of developing any military technology; it's only a matter of time," said Zhu, referring to recent allegations that the Chinese stole American nuclear secrets from the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1980s.

"My visit to the United States is to tell you the truth and let you vent your anger and your complaints."

Zhu's comments yesterday marked the highest-level Chinese response so far to allegations that China used information stolen from Los Alamos to build small nuclear warheads. The technology would allow China to fire numerous warheads from a single missile at multiple targets.

The charges surfaced about a week ago in The New York Times and have heightened the debate over the Clinton administration's policy of engaging China.

Some Republican critics suggest that when the White House learned of the alleged theft in 1996, it responded slowly because of campaign contributions that may have come from the Chinese government. The Clinton administration has acknowledged that the leak seriously damaged U.S. security, but denied that it failed to respond properly.

Zhu pointed out yesterday that the alleged spy, a Taiwanese-born American scientist named Wen Ho Lee, was fired from the lab last week but has not been charged. The premier blamed the controversy on Washington politics.

"Sino-U.S. relations have been victimized by the internal struggle in the United States," Zhu said at the annual news conference following the end of China's legislative session.

The espionage charges have further strained relations.

America has proposed building a missile defense system to provide security for Japan and Taiwan. China's ability to fire

multiple warheads could make it more difficult for the United States to protect its territory as well as others'. The United States,

however, still has a staggering nuclear advantage over China, which would make a first strike on American territory tantamount

to suicide.

(Optional add end)

During the news conference, the premier punctuated his comments with the candor, humor and Western references that have

made him a refreshing contrast to more traditional Chinese leaders.

After saying Sino-American relations had been hurt by U.S. domestic politics, Zhu joked that he, too, had been victimized in a

recent issue of Business Week. ``On the cover of that magazine, my photo makes me look like a dead man," he said.

In discussing the recent failure of one of China's financial trusts, Zhu quoted from Shakespeare's ``The Merchant of Venice,"

saying the government would not make it easy for other trusts to declare bankruptcy.

``Of course, nowadays, if one fails to repay the debt, you will not face the risk of sacrificing one pound of flesh," Zhu said.

``But, even so, the creditor banks will not let you go so easily."

And on the sensitive subject of human rights, Zhu said he had been fighting for democracy and freedom against the

Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalists, when Secretary of State Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright was still a schoolgirl.

Albright spent part of her brief visit here last month complaining about China's human rights record and urging the

authoritarian regime to release dissidents recently jailed for trying to form China's first opposition party.

Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service

LA TIMES-WASHINGTON POST-03-15-99 1852EST

03-16-99