Editing Rambouillet Agreement (section)

===Rambouillet===
On 23 February 1999, the co-chairmen [[Robin Cook]] and [[Hubert Védrine]] of the negotiation process put out a statement saying that the negotiations "have led to a consensus" on substantial autonomy for Kosovo, including on mechanisms for free and fair elections to democratic institutions, for the governance of Kosovo, for the protection of human rights and the rights of members of national communities; and for the establishment of a fair judicial system". They went on to say that "a political framework is now in place" leaving the further work of finalizing "the implementation Chapters of the Agreement, including the modalities of the invited international civilian and military presence in Kosovo".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ohr.int/other-doc/contact-g/default.asp?content_id=3560 |title=Contact Group Statement – Rambouillet, 23 February 1999 |publisher=Office of the High Representative |date=23 February 1999 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926234216/http://www.ohr.int/other-doc/contact-g/default.asp?content_id=3560 |archive-date=26 September 2007}}</ref>
However, this assessment was at best overly optimistic, and at worst absolutely ignored the divergence of interests between the two major parties. The Albanians were unwilling to accept a solution that would retain Kosovo as part of Serbia, while the Serbs did not want to see the pre-1990 status quo restored, and they were implacably opposed to any international role in the governance of the province, including the offer of a face-saving measure wherein blue-helmeted UN peacekeeping troops would be used instead of NATO troops.<ref name = "Judah 323">{{Harvnb|Judah|2009|p=323}}.</ref> To add to the problem, the NATO Contact Group countries were desperate to avoid having to make good on their threat of force—Greece and Italy were opposed to the idea. Consequently, when the talks failed to achieve an agreement by the original deadline of 19 February, they were extended by another month.