War In The Balkans: Briefing Day 58

t The United Nations refugee agency yesterday released details of a plan to return up to 1.5 million ethnic Albanian refugees to their homes in Kosovo, but said it was nowhere close to putting the plan into action. The first part of the four-stage plan would see assessment teams sent into the province. In the second stage, work would begin to make the province suitable for return. The third stage would see refugees registered. The final step would be the long-term reintegration.

t Britain announced yesterday it was recalling an aircraft carrier and sending in a ship with helicopters that could support Nato operations on land. Defence Secretary George Robertson said the Royal Navy's helicopter training ship HMS Argushe would replace HMS Invincible in the Adriatic.

t The first group of Kosovar refugees to pass through Greece arrived yesterday en route to Australia. Greece has offered Salonica as a transit point for refugees bused from neighbouring Macedonia. 373 refugees set off for Australia.

t Kosovo rebels ambushed a Yugoslav unit on a road from the provincial capital Pristina to Leskovac in southern Serbia, killing at least 20 soldiers, the guerrilla news agency said yesterday.