BRUSSELS, May 4: US President Bill Clinton hinted at a possible pause in NATO's sevenweek-old bombing campaign, but there was no indication of a breakthrough emerging from the latest flurry of diplomatic peace-making over Kosovo, reports Reuters.

Meanwhile, the bombing went on. On Monday night alliance warplanes hit a television building in northern Serbia and a military airport near Belgrade, but no attacks were reported after midnight (2200 GMT).

Clinton speaking before a meeting with Russia's Balkan envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, suggested for the first time he might accept a pause in the relentless NATO air offensive, but reiterated Yugoslavia would first have to accept NATO's basic demands on Kosovo.

Chernomyrdin said after his White House meeting with Clinton that they were now closer to a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

But UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was due to meet Chernomyrdin on Tuesday, cautioned against any quick diplomatic fix to the cri-

Chernomyrdin’s visit to Washington coincided with a

series of unexpected train arrivals in Macedonia that swamped the main border crossing with Kosovo, bringing thousands of ethnic Albanians from an area north of the provincial capital Pristina.

The UNHCR said there were now more than 83.000 refugees crammed into bursting refugee camps and some 93.000 more living with ethnic kin in Macedonia. A total of 24.858 refugees have been airlifted so far.

The last reported NATO attacks on Yugoslav targets were at about 10 pm (2000 GMT) on Monday.

Two rockets struck the television station in Novi Sad. causing extensive damage but no injuries as the building was empty at the time. Serb state television RTS said.

Belgrade residents reported attacks on Monday evening to the west of the city around Bata-jnica. site of a military airport hit repeatedly by NATO since raids began on March 24.

Other explosions were heard in the Belgrade suburb of Rakovica. while RTS reported that Strazevica hill just outside the capital had been hit and said several projectiles slammed into the Ladjevici area, near Kraljevo. in central Serbia.

Serb media said earlier on Monday NATO bombs killed 17 people, including children, on a bus in Kosovo near the town of Pec. but NATO dismissed the report as a deliberate distortion.

The relative calm over Yugoslavia early on Tuesday contrasted sharply with NATO attacks 24 hours earlier when a raid on switching equipment at a power station west of Belgrade plunged most of Serbia into darkness and missiles hit the towns of Kraljevo. Valjevo and Novi Sad.

Utility crews worked throughout the day to repair damage to the power grid, which NATO said was caused by special weapons that cause electrical equipment to short circuit. By Monday evening power was restored to about 50 per cent of Belgrade, residents said.

Clinton told a news conference in Washington a pause in the bombing could be considered if it would help stop repression in Kosovo.

"We can have a bombing pause, if it's clear that will be in aid of that larger purpose." he said, without budging from the basic demand that Yugoslavia first begin withdrawing troops from Kosovo.