PEACEKEEPERS EDGE CLOSER.

Byline: Anne Gearan Associated Press 

U.S. Marines trained for war will instead begin enforcing peace in Kosovo, perhaps within days, if Serb troops retreat from the ethnically divided province as promised.

Even as NATO pressed on with a 73rd day of bombing over Kosovo on Friday, the vanguard of about 7,000 American peacekeeping troops moved toward the Balkans aboard a three-ship Marine amphibious group.

About 50,000 peacekeepers from NATO nations and other countries would eventually move into Kosovo if a peace agreement struck earlier this week holds. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic acceded to the alliance's terms for an end to violence in Kosovo after more than 10 weeks of bombing that destroyed roads, bridges, airfields and hundreds of pieces of military equipment.

President Clinton said Friday he is eager to stop the air war but wary of Milosevic's record of broken promises.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the bombing could stop today or early next week if Yugoslavia cooperates. Meanwhile, he said, bombs will fall until the allies see clear proof the Serbs are leaving Kosovo quickly and irreversibly.

Specific plans for the Serb retreat, including logistical questions about which roads and bridges to use, were to be considered in a NATO-Yugoslav military meeting today.

NATO blames Serb troops loyal to Milosevic for months of ethnic violence aimed at Kosovo residents of Albanian ancestry. An international tribunal indicted Milosevic last month on charges he perpetrated war crimes by ordering massacres and systematic expulsions from Kosovo, a rebel province of Serbia.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled Kosovo, and thousands more are camping out within the province.

``There is an enormous opportunity to be seized here, a chance to shift our focus from defeating something evil to building something good,'' Clinton said. He seemed to welcome the coming task of rebuilding the shattered province and said the bombing campaign was worth the effort.

Americans flew about two-thirds of the missions to rescue Kosovo. The United States has long planned to turn over the bulk of any postwar peacekeeping operation to the other allies.

The Marines would patrol a section of eastern Kosovo assigned to the United States, while other countries field similar initial landing forces in their assigned sectors, Pentagon spokesman Bacon said. The Marines would soon yield to Army troops and heavy armor from U.S. bases in Germany.

The 1,900 to 2,200 Marines should arrive in the Greek port of Thessaloniki by late today, Pentagon officials said.

From Greece the Marines will travel by road to Skopje, Macedonia, and wait for NATO to give the go-ahead for peacekeepers to move into Kosovo.

The peace terms include a rapid timetable for withdrawal of about 40,000 Serb forces. Once Milosevic begins acting on the agreement, he has 48 hours to shut down his air defense system and seven days to remove his troops from Kosovo.

Serb troops will demobilize from west to east, with NATO forces on their heels, Bacon said. A 15-mile buffer zone will separate Kosovo from the rest of Serbia, and will help ensure disgruntled Serbs cannot re-enter Kosovo or fire at NATO troops there, he said.

WHAT'S NEXT

Many details must be worked out to make the Kosovo peace accord stick. The proposed plan and efforts under way to resolve the remaining issues:

NATO, Russian and Yugoslav generals will meet at an undisclosed location Saturday to work out the technicalities of the Serb withdrawal from Kosovo. Yugoslav officers are expected to demand safe passage of their troops out of the province.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said NATO airstrikes could end today or early next week, if Yugoslav officials cooperate. He warned, however, that if the Serbs hesitate in accepting NATO's terms, the bombing could continue many more days.

The peace plan approved Thursday in Belgrade suggests that Yugoslav forces could be out of Kosovo within about seven days. A 15-mile buffer zone will separate Serb and international forces.

NATO officials must form and deploy the 50,000-strong international peace force. It is expected to contain non-NATO troops, including Russians. About 2,000 U.S. Marines will likely be the first NATO forces to enter Kosovo, before eventually being replaced by conventional allied ground troops.

CAPTION(S):

Box

BOX: WHAT`S NEXT (see text)