Although there is a lot of threatening news about possible bombing being broadcast by CNN and other foreign news media, local television reports here in Belgrade are focusing more on how Yugoslavia cannot accept foreign troops on its territory and how Russia says it will not allow intervention in Kosovo and Metohija.

Virtually all domestic television news reports strongly support the government stand against NATO troop deployment. The print media are also lining up in defense of Yugoslav sovereignty. All major political parties, including those involved in last year's anti-government demonstrations are now supporting the government. Only the Democratic Party led by Zoran Djindjic is not on the government team, but that party appears to be losing its already limited support because the population is strongly against any intervention. There is nevertheless a fear among many Yugoslavs that even if they resist U.S. troop deployment, they will still end up seeing Kosovo occupied by foreign powers.

One analogy being cited is how the major European powers forced Czechoslovakia to surrender its Sudetenland territory to Adolf Hitler without a fight at the Munich conference before World War II in what was then claimed to be a defense of the rights of the ethnic German majority population there at that time. The talks near Paris over the past two weeks are being seen here as another potential Munich. The comparison is ironic, because the main player in the current negotiations-at-gunpoint is U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who has been quoted as saying her goal in international affairs is to prevent the type of events that took place at Munich in the lead-up to World War II.

Although some compromise may still be reached in the talks, Yugoslav television is regularly showing patriotic footage of the Yugoslav army in its role of defending the country's borders. A big benefit concert is being held in Belgrade to raise money for the families of police killed by ethnic Albanian separatists. The mood is generally one of realization that war may be very near and that Yugoslavs will have little choice but to defend themselves from what they would see as an unprovoked foreign attack.

Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic, party leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, has gone from being a top opposition figure little over a year ago, to being a full-fledged member of the federal government. The Kosovo issue has polarized politics in Yugoslavia along new lines drawn in response to the external threat to the territorial integrity of the country. In recent remarks, Draskovic has spoken of the need for the lifting of all sanctions against Yugoslavia and for the country's admission to international bodies and access to international capital. It is unclear whether these comments are a signal that a deal may be offered by the United States in return for some sort of a compromise on Kosovo. But Draskovic's earlier outright rejection of any foreign troop deployment would seem to rule out the kind of accommodation that the United States is demanding from Yugoslavia.

People in the streets of Belgrade show no signs of fear or concern after the talks in Rambouillet failed to produce an agreement by the deadline of noon, Sunday, February 20th. Local residents have long accepted the fact that their government would call NATO's bombing bluff if the Saturday deadline passed without agreement.

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Any questions about this report may be sent directly by e-mail to our correspondent, John Bosnitch, who is now on assignment in Yugoslavia. His e-mail address is: bosnitch@imcnews.com We appreciate your comments and suggestions.