He said the talks would resume at the end of the month, a week after the NATO deadline.

Despite protracted negotiations, Serbian forces are frustrating efforts by British troops here to bring 19 pieces of artillery under United Nations control, two days after a NATO deadline.

The number of collection sites has grown to 10 from 8 since the NATO deadline passed as it has become clear that Serbs would not budge from certain positions.

The rebel commander in the region, a 45-year-old former teacher who gave his name as Msusi, said the insurgents would turn over all of their arms by the NATO deadline.

The French platoon spent the night of the NATO deadline in their vehicles or in Serbian houses near the guns.

The Bosnian Prime Minister, Haris Silajdzic, tonight accused the Serbs of "a transparent attempt to delay" and escape the NATO deadline.

Only a day before a NATO deadline and under the threat of air strikes, Yugoslavia today began what appeared to be serious troop withdrawals from many positions in Kosovo.

But he said the pace suggested that the Serbs could have most of their heavy weapons out of the zone "within 36 hours" - well before the NATO deadline.

By avoiding mention of the NATO deadline and the zone from which weapons were to be removed, Dr. Karadzic seemed to be trying to avoid the suggestion that he had accepted NATO's terms.

President Clinton welcomed the last-minute withdrawal of Yugoslav forces, whose tanks and armored vehicles began abandoning fortified positions in Kosovo on the eve of the NATO deadline.