The United States Defence Secretary, William Cohen, has expressed confidence that the Serbian opposition will drive President Milosevic from power and introduce democratic reforms.

Mr Cohen -- who was speaking just before beginning a tour of south-east Europe -- discounted rumours that NATO would let Mr Milosevic go into exile in a third country, like Belarus or Iraq, saying he should instead be put on trial for war crimes.

Mr Cohen was speaking in Copenhagen before going on to Norway for a meeting with Nordic and Baltic Defence Ministers..

He is attempting to speed up the deployment of international peacekeepers in Kosovo. Denmark has offered some eight-hundred-and-fifty troops and two hundred million dollars for humanitarian aid.