CLINTON, RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT TO MEET ON KOSOVO CONFLICT.

Byline: Jane Perlez The New York Times

The White House said Sunday that President Clinton planned to meet Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Russian envoy for the Balkans, today to discuss possible solutions to the war in Kosovo. Administration officials said it was unclear whether the Russian was bringing any new proposals.

The visit follows Chernomyrdin's meeting with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade on Friday and a series of diplomatic moves by Milosevic, including the abrupt release of three American prisoners of war. The moves were apparently aimed at improving Milosevic's image in the West even as his forces were expelling tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo's second-largest town.

Clinton agreed to see Chernomyrdin after Russian President Boris Yeltsin telephoned the president Sunday morning and asked him to see the envoy, the White House said. Clinton and Yeltsin did not discuss the substance of what Chernomyrdin wanted to talk about, officials said.

Publicly, administration officials - who have watched as Milosevic tried to seize the diplomatic initiative in the last three days - remained resolute in their determination to continue the bombing of Yugoslavia and to stick with NATO's demands for ending the war.

``As we welcome our soldiers home, our thoughts also turn to the over 1 million Kosovars who are unable to go home because of the policies of the regime in Belgrade,'' Clinton said. ``Today we reaffirm our resolve to persevere until they too can return with security and self-government.''

Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott dismissed as a ``PR stunt'' a letter from the Yugoslav leader to Clinton, which contained a suggestion of a meeting between the American and Yugoslav leaders, according to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who left Belgrade on Sunday with the three freed American soldiers.

Talbott insisted that NATO was bombing Milosevic's government, not negotiating with it.

Similarly, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said in Brussels, Belgium, that Milosevic could not expect a reward for the release of the captured soldiers. Indeed, the ferocity of the air war seemed unabated, as Belgrade and much of Yugoslavia were blacked out after NATO struck a major power plant on Sunday night.

Administration officials said they did not know what else in the form of specific proposals was in the letter that Jackson was bringing from Milosevic. They expected to learn its contents when Clinton meets with Jackson late today.

Privately, administration officials said they considered Chernomyrdin's visit more important than the aftermath of Jackson's mission.

The most optimistic interpretation of Chernomyrdin's visit was that it showed that Milosevic was beginning to feel the pressure from the stepped-up NATO air assaults and was putting out feelers for a settlement.

``We'll have to see if there is anything real or it's all for show,'' a senior administration official said. ``We want to hear Chernomyrdin out and hear his sense of the lay of the land. It's a tough time to say no to the Russians.''

Chernomyrdin's visit was potentially the first in a series of diplomatic efforts this week.

Clinton is scheduled to visit NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, en route to visiting with U.S. troops based in Germany.

His NATO visit was planned before Chernomyrdin's trip to Washington was scheduled. But diplomats said it was possible that Clinton would discuss the Russian efforts with the North Atlantic Council, NATO's chief decision-making body.

Moscow announced that Chernomyrdin would also go to New York to brief U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. From there, he will go to London and Paris, Moscow said.

Chernomyrdin's travels suggested that he was assuming the mantle of ``shuttle diplomat'' on Kosovo, a position the Russians coveted, a senior administration official said. But there were mixed opinions among Clinton's senior foreign policy advisers about Chernomyrdin's taking on this role at this point, the official said.

The White House has encouraged the Russians to play an active role in trying to mediate the Kosovo war, in part because of concern that the air assaults cannot go on indefinitely without losing American public support. There is also concern about how long European members of NATO can remain united in their support of the airstrikes.