US analysts said the air attacks could extend anywhere from three to six weeks unless Milosevic relented. If it did, it would be the longest such campaign against any country in modern history, surpassing the relatively light strikes against Iraq.

President Clinton himself went on television twice on Wednesday to explain to the American people why the US was getting involved in a war with a distant country.

We want to prevent a wider war, to defuse the powder keg in the heart of Europe that has exploded twice before in this century with catastrophic results, Clinton said in a 13-minute address at 8 pm in which he used a map to explain to Americans the geography ofEurope.

Invoking the images of World War II and comparing the Yugoslavian leader to Hitler, Clinton said if Milosevic will not make peace, we will limit his ability to make war.

Throughout the day US officials, including the three principles -- Secretary of State Albright, National Security Adviser Berger and Defence Secretary Cohen -- blitzed the media outlets justifying a war that has left most Americans cold.

The stock market, a barometer of public mood, was mostly unaffected by the Yugoslav developments as the Nasdaq and Dow both began a solid rebound on Thursday after holding steady on Wednesday. Investors were more concerned with quarterly results than bombing outcome.

The US principals suggested in several interviews that the only way the bombing would stop now was if Milosevic agreed to all provisions of a US brokered peace accord which envisaged granting self-rule to Kosovo while maintaining it as a province of Serbia for at least another three years.

The US is also demanding that Milosevicpull out Serbian forces to be replaced by a 28,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force. A mere promise to return to the negotiating table without committing to the accord would not be sufficient to call of the bombing, they suggested.

The Yugoslavs fear the accord could be the first step towards a NATO plan to grant full independence to Kosovo, an apprehension that would have been fuelled when Clinton and his aides referred to the province as a separate country several times during the day.

But the Yugoslav/Serbian leadership has already lost the propaganda battle in the West where they have been demonised because of their bloody campaign against the Kosovars. There has been little scrutiny of the political aspects of the NATO-inspired solution in Yugoslavia, the fallout of which is looked upon with consternation by countries like Russia and China.

Both Moscow and Beijing have taken umbrage a the US-sponsored solution to the Kosovo problem because, like Yugoslavia, they too have separatist ethnic entitiesand enclaves within their country (so has India, which has also objected to the NATO move, but New Delhi's protest did not attract any attention here).

President Clinton had a 45-minute telephone conversation on Wednesday with Russian President Boris Yeltsin trying to explain the NATO imperatives. But the ailing Russian leader and his equally ailing country is such a supplicant to the US that despite being a Serbian ally, Moscow has been able to do little to halt the punitive NATO actions.

With three of the five Security Council members participating in the NATO strikes, Russia and China have been left fulminating. Both have moved the UN for an emergency session.