WASHINGTON (AP) - The military service chiefs will meet with President Clinton Thursday to discuss options in NATO's conflict with Yugoslavia, including the possible use of ground troops for a land invasion of Kosovo, Defense Secretary William Cohen said today.

Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will discuss ``the whole range of issues ... including considerations about whether there should be or could be a ground option'' and whether NATO would support such a shift in strategy, Cohen told reporters.

Responding to questions during a photo-taking session in his Pentagon office, Cohen said there are no firm plans for any use of ground forces in Kosovo beyond the enlarged peacekeeping force now in the works. And he said ``there is no other planning'' ready to be presented to Clinton on ground force options.

Clinton, during a commencement address today at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., announced the United States would contribute 7,000 U.S. troops to some 50,000 international forces for Kosovo peacekeeping.

The president, who has all but ruled out a ground invasion, urged Americans to stick behind the 10-week-old airstrike strategy. ``We cannot grow weary of this campaign because Mr. Milosevic did not capitulate when the first bombs fell,'' he said. ``If we have the patience and determination to match the courage and skill of the men and women in uniform we will achieve our goals.''

Clinton also noted the deployment this week of 68 additional U.S. aircraft for the air war. The planes are part of a 176-aircraft increase approved by Cohen on May 6. It includes a squadron of 12 F-16 fighters, two squadrons of F-15E attack planes and 20 air tankers. Officials have said the planes would be based in Turkey, although Pentagon officials declined to publicly confirm that.

Some 16,000 NATO troops are now stationed in neighboring Macedonia and about 14,000 are to be added. On a visit here, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said the Macedonian parliament had taken the position Macedonia should not be used for attacks on any of its neighbors.

And, he said at a news conference after seeing Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Greece, Hungary and Bulgaria have similar positions.

However, Georgievski said, if NATO decides to invade, ``We will have to put it to the Macedonian parliament again.''

Georgievski, leader of the tiniest Balkans nation, appealed also for U.S. assistance. Albright, responding, said Congress already has approved $22 million in economic assistance and $15 million in technical aid.

Cohen stressed that the administration and NATO are committed to continuing the air campaign and using ground troops in a peacekeeping role only after there is a peace agreement with Belgrade. Nonetheless, when pressed for details on Thursday's meeting, Cohen said, ``I'm sure there will be a full range of discussions, questions about whether or not there would be any kind of a ground option for a nonpermissive environment.'' He added that there is no NATO consensus for a ground invasion.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said the focus of Clinton's meeting with his military advisers would be ``the air campaign and its effectiveness.''

``You should not look at this as a decision meeting,'' Lockhart said, stressing the idea is simply to discuss all NATO options available.

Other administration officials, meanwhile, said today that a U.S.-Russian plan for a new diplomatic overture to Yugoslavia has not resolved all differences on what kind of peacekeeping force would go into Kosovo, but Albright said there was ``sufficient agreement'' to move forward on the initiative.

State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said it was ``an open question'' whether Russia would participate in sending peacekeepers under NATO command and with NATO at its core as demanded by the allies.

But in a gesture to Moscow, Rubin said the Clinton administration would not object to adoption of a resolution by the United Nations to endorse the peacekeeping plan after a settlement to protect returning refugees.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic previously had flatly rejected the plan and NATO's demands for a withdrawal of virtually all Serb troops from Kosovo.

Russian mediator Viktor Chernomyrdin and President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland were going together to Belgrade today to present the new diplomatic initiative. The plan grew out of lengthy talks in Bonn, Germany, with Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, Chernomyrdin and Ahtisaari.

``We think the areas of agreement are sufficiently large to justify a joint trip,'' Rubin said. ``The ball clearly is in Mr. Milosevic's court.''

Chernomyrdin said NATO troops will be under NATO command, while the Russian troops will be controlled by the Russian command.

Talbott, speaking later, said the Western alliance was against patrolling Kosovo with separate forces because it could easily lead to a de facto partition of the Serbian province - something the West has ruled out.

lam

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 06, 1999

Answers

I received an email from my son yesterday...

"Well It's probably our last days of tasking here in the adriatic. Talk of the pease treaty is spreading faster than wild fire on the boat. The Marines are disembarking the ship @ 1400 today, and well get all of our gear off the beach within the next couple of days. I dont know what we will do for the next month!! Hope fully it will be spent in port, but that is unlikely." He's been saying they will be back in the USA by July ever since he left. Seems to me that the go'ment has the timetable figured and will end the "war" when they want to. Clinton has ignored the Law and continues to do as he pleases, guess he just wants to show the world who is in charge. I don't think it is Clinton himself.

We'll see!

-- Mac (goin@fishing.bass), June 06, 1999.