Reaction in Serbia to the acceptance of the peace plan has been sharply conflicting.

The Serbian deputy prime minister and leader of the ultra-nationalist Radical Party , Vojslav Seselj, said he would resign if NATO troops entered Kosovo. His party voted against the plan in the Serbian parliament. But the former Yugoslav deputy prime minister, Vuk Draskovic, who was sacked by President Milosevic in April, said it was a great day for peace and the future of democracy and called for reconciliation between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

One of the main Serbian opposition leaders, Zoran Djindjic, said the next stage will be to bring those responsible for the Kosovo conflict to account.

In the refugee camps in Albania, the deal has been given a muted welcome.

A BBC correspondent in the northern Albanian town of Kukes, says most refugees will not return until there is firm evidence that all Serb forces have left Kosovo and NATO troops are in place. The United Nations refugee agency in Macedonia said Kosovan refugees could return rapidly in large numbers when conditions were right.