NATO SET TO ENLARGE CAMPAIGN; OFFICIAL CAUTIONS END OF CONFLICT NOT IN SIGHT.

Byline: Jodi Enda and Barry Shlachter Knight Ridder Newspapers

As NATO prepared to greatly expand its air campaign against Yugoslavia, the allies' top military official said Tuesday that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's ``high degree of willingness to accept damage'' is likely to lengthen the war in the Balkans.

The sobering assessment by Gen. Wesley Clark came amid reports of a brief Yugoslav incursion into Albania, one of the primary havens for refugees fleeing Milosevic's troops in neighboring Kosovo.

Although United States and NATO officials said they still were appraising the situation, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned Milosevic that ``the widening of this conflict by the Serbs to the other countries in the region would have serious consequences.''

As Albright met with her Russian counterpart in an inconclusive effort to seek a diplomatic solution, President Clinton briefed Congress members on the air campaign that he said ``is diminishing and grinding down Mr. Milosevic's military capabilities.''

``We have weakened Serbia's air defenses and command and control. We have reduced his ability to move, sustain and supply the war machine in Kosovo,'' Clinton said after a White House meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers. ``We have damaged his refineries and diminished his capacity to produce ammunition. We are striking now at his tanks and at his artillery, and have destroyed half his advanced MiG-29 aircraft.''

Now, Clinton said, NATO is taking its campaign ``to the next level'' with an additional 300 American warplanes - characterized by the Pentagon as ground attack planes, tankers and air suppression planes - and a British and a French aircraft carrier. That decision promptly sparked criticism that the initial air assault was far too restrictive.

The Pentagon also is likely to call up military reservists, said spokesman Kenneth Bacon. He did not quantify how many would be called to active duty, but said most would be pilots who could fly some of the additional planes sent to the battle area.

Other reservists would serve as liaisons between NATO and Albanian and Macedonian officials who are working with refugees.

The administration is trying to determine how to help refugees who are stuck in Kosovo, many of them with no shelter and little food. Clinton said dropping food and other supplies from the air could be problematic because Serb forces could confiscate them and the activity would endanger NATO pilots.

Cost assessment

For the first time, the administration on Tuesday assessed the cost of American involvement in the Balkans crisis at about $3 billion to $4 billion, which might not include aiding some 1 million refugees, Bacon said. Clinton said he soon would submit an emergency budget request to Congress, which is just beginning to contemplate the possibility of a lengthy Balkans engagement.

In a meeting of more than two hours, some Congress members said they advised a reluctant Clinton not to rule out ground forces. But they said the president stuck to his insistence that NATO can force Milosevic out of Kosovo with air power alone, which would limit the danger to American and European allied troops.

Even if they don't want him to use ground troops anytime soon, lawmakers said they urged Clinton to prepare for such a move in case it becomes necessary. The Congress members said Clinton did not respond.

``I think there's widespread opinion among members of Congress that the president ought not to rule out any option, and the way to keep the ground option available, obviously, would be to do some pre-positioning,'' said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Clinton pointed out that while NATO had been bombing Yugoslavia for three weeks, weather had hampered pilots for all but eight days.

Specter, who opposes any congressional resolution that would give Clinton ``a blank check'' to send in ground troops, said ``a fair inference is that the president is committed to continuing the airstrikes.

``And there is a real issue as to whether the alliance would support anything beyond the airstrikes at this time,'' Specter said. ``So I don't think that any other alternative is gaining any credence.''

Blair's warning

Indeed, British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Parliament on Tuesday that the loss of life in a ground attack would be ``considerable.''

``And in any event,'' Blair added, ``assembling such a force would take weeks.''

Clark, NATO's supreme commander, said Tuesday in Brussels, Belgium, that the airstrikes had knocked out 70 percent of Milosevic's fuel storage facilities, making it more difficult for him to wage war.

In remarks that echoed those of Clinton and Albright, Clark said destruction from the sky is ``going to be greater and greater and greater'' and that NATO was in for the ``long haul.'' Of the 1,687 sorties NATO has flown since March 24, nearly one-tenth were flown in the previous 24 hours, Clark said Tuesday.

But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a Vietnam war hero and presidential contender, said adding more planes is not a good sign for NATO. ``To request an additional 300 aircraft three weeks into the war is not an indication that everything is on track,'' he said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Reports surfaced Tuesday that a Yugoslav light infantry unit had slipped a few miles into Albania, seized a border post and burned several nearby houses, prompting some concern the conflict might spread beyond Yugoslavia.

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PHOTO An ethnic Albanian girl holds on to a wire fence at a refugee camp.

Eric Draper/Associated Press