COPENHAGEN United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Friday he feared the indictment of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic by the UN War Crimes Tribunal would complicate peace diplomacy on Kosovo. "I think it will complicate...but I hope it will not be an insurmountable problem. We don't know the reaction of President Milosevic and the Serbian leadership towards the indictment and these are unpredictable issues," he said.

Russian peace envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, who visited Belgrade on Friday for more talks with Milosevic, might shed light on this issue, Annan told a news conference in Denmark. Annan also said the world was in a race against time to return Kosovo Albanian refugees to their homes before winter. Hundreds of thousands were expelled in Milosevic's brutal purge of areas dominated by separatist guerrillas.

(Reuter)