Bombs echo in Kosovo as warriors talk peace

This time the two sides, and their US, EU and Russian mediators, are meeting inside Paris itself 8212; even as the violence continues in the Serbian province where an Ethnic Albanian majority is fighting for self-rule.

Yesterday, two bombs planted in garbage bins in Podujevo town, and a third in a market in Kosvoska Mitrovica, left seven people dead and 66 injured according to the Serbian-run media center in Kosovo8217;s main city Pristina.

It also said a 21-year-old soldier was killed, and three wounded, when their unit was hit by mortar and automatic weapons fire in a clash yesterday withethnic Albanian rebels near Vucitrn, also in the north.

There was no immediate indication as to who was behind the bombings. But analysts suspected the perpetrators were trying to derail the difficult peace process sponsored by the six-nation contract group on the former Yugoslavia.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE has said it had unconfirmed reports of quot;sporadicquot; artillery and automatic weapons fire near the town of Klina.

AFP reports from Washington quote NATO Secretary General Javier Solan on Saturday saying Kosovo8217;s ethnic Albanians would sign on to a peace agreement for their troubled province by Monday.8217;

quot;I can tell you that the Kosovar side is going to sign 8230; either tomorrow Sunday or Monday in Paris,quot; Solana said in an address to the trilateral Commission here.

quot;The Kosovars are going to say yes8217; and the Serbs are going to say no8217;,quot; Solana said, predicting the outcome of new talks starting Monday in the French capital to push both sides into accepting thepeace deal.

quot;We will have a situation where one party, the Kosovars, are going to accept the agreement and the other side, the Serbs, are going to pose strong difficulties,quot; Solana said. He added that NATO8217;s role in the case of Serbian refusal and Albanian acceptance of the agreement was clear; that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was authorized to begin Air strikes on Serb positions.

The mainly Serbian Yugoslav government of President Slobodan Milosevic is firmly opposed to the peace plan which grants autonomy to Kosovo and requires a NATO peace implementation force to enforce the agreement.