The scenario is opening for the initiative to return to the political track Mr D'Alema said at the European Union

"The scenario is opening for the initiative to return to the political track," Mr D'Alema said at the European Union summit in Berlin. Massimo D'Alema, the Italian Prime Minister, said the first wave of bombing, on Wednesday night, had halted the Serb offensive in Kosovo, reopening the path towards a negotiated settlement. DEEP DIVISIONS emerged among Europe's leaders yesterday as Italy called for a renewed search for a diplomatic settlement with Belgrade. The disarray and corruption in Russia is such that acquiring arms and arranging for their illegal shipment would not present an insurmountable hurdle to a determined army officer."The problem is there is so much stuff around," said a Western source, "It is hard to keep track of what's going where."Phil Reeves. It is doubtful that the Russian government would endorse such a move, but thegenerals are a different matter.There are military hardliners who have long fumed over Moscow's increasing impotence, and continue to lament the death of the Soviet Union.

"Russia has a number of extreme measures in store, but we decided not to use them so far," said Boris Yeltsin yesterday, although the US had made "a great mistake" which Moscow would "not forget".Matters may not be within his control. Unconfirmed reports circulated yesterday that the military is planning to dispatch Soviet-made portable Igla surface-to-air missiles to Yugoslavia. Last night Yevgeny Primakov, the Prime Minister,called for an immediate end to the strikes - which were a "monumental mistake". But he has been at particular pains to separate Russia's moral outrage over Nato from on-going negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.The Kremlin responded to the bombings by withdrawing from Nato's Partnership for Peace, but the key issue is whether Moscow will choose to do something more concrete.

That was reflected by the rhetoric of government ministers, which had a flavour reminiscent of the worst Cold War spats.But - as Washington clearly calculated - Russia needs the West, and its money, and has enough reservations about Slobodan Milosevic to be reluctant to sacrifice too much in his name. RUSSIA TRIED to walk a diplomatic tightrope yesterday bycondemning the assault on Yugoslavia while being careful not to break off ties with the West for fear of losing desperately needed new loans. This ambivalent stance was not shared by angry protesters, who threw eggs and paint at the British embassy in Moscow amid a general wave of public outrage and frustration at Russia's diplomatic weakness on the world stage. Hundreds of Russians also demonstrated outside the capital's American embassy, yelling anti-Western slogans and brandishing banners, while far right-wing organisations - including Cossacks - began recruiting young volunteers to go to Yugoslavia to defend their fellow Slavs, the Serbs.The air strikes seems to have caused genuine anger among the population in a way that previous clashes with the West - over the bombing of Iraq, Nato expansion, and US sanctions over technology transfers to Iran - have not. Our crime is to protect our own borders, as any other country would do Vuk Draskovic Yugoslav Vice-Premier Not to have acted would have made ourselves complicit in repressionRobin CookForeign SecretaryThe operation will be just as long and difficult as President Milosevic requires it to beGeneral Wesley ClarkI make a special prayer to the Father of Mercy for the peace which Kosovo and Europe need so muchPope John Paul IIThe scenario is opening up for initiatives to return to the political trackTony BlairPrime MinisterEach [Nato] soldier is an enemy of the Serb people and should be destroyedVojislav Seselj, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister. Police drove the rioters away and cordoned off government buildings and those of Western organisations. The Macedonian Prime Minister, Ljubco Georgievski, said that some 20,000 ethnic Albanian refugees had poured in from Kosovo."If responsibility for the catastrophe in Kosovo rests on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, then the spillover of this catastrophe here is the responsibility of the US and the EU," Mr Georgievski said.. Angry protesters were forced back from the American embassy after pulling down its perimeter fence and setting fire to cars parked near by. I saw three bright flashes in the sky over the capital and small-arms fire could be heard while police helicopters clattered overhead.

He knows what he needs to do and it's now up to him to decide.". POLICE FIRED tear gas and chased hundreds of anti-Nato protesters through the capital, Skopje, yesterday after a crowd attacked the US embassy to protest at the Nato attacks. He said the operation would continue until "we are successful in achieving our military objectives... What we are trying to do is indicate to Mr Milosevic that he has an opportunity to pursue the path of peace at any time. This is a signal to him that we are serious."The White House spokesman, Joe Lockhart, said: "There's ample diplomatic channels for President Milosevic to send the message... For the political right, this observation was an argument never to have embarked on the project in the first place.