Serbs Hang Tough on Kosovo Summit

Just showing up at peace talks won't be enough, Madeleine Albright warned Kosovo's warring factions last week -- but the Serbs on Friday made even showing up difficult for their ethnic-Albanian adversaries. The Serbs stopped four Kosovo Liberation Army delegates from leaving Pristina, insisting the men couldn't travel to the Paris talks without valid passports. "The posturing has begun," says TIME Central Europe bureau chief Massimo Calabresi. Neither side supports NATO's peace plan, and agreed to the talks only under threat of Western military action. "They're obviously going to try and strengthen their negotiating positions at the outset," says Calabresi.

The Serbs Thursday rejected a key provision of the peace plan -- a NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo. "If the Serbs stick to that position, NATO may be forced eventually to bomb them into accepting peacekeeping troops," says Calabresi. The threat of force that made the two sides show up in Paris may yet be needed to persuade them to make nice.