"At a time when Christian communities world-wide are preparing to celebrate Easter, and its message of hope and redemption, it is particularly painful to be faced once again with the grim reality of military conflict in the Balkans.

"My thoughts and prayers are with everyone caught up in this conflict: with the British and allied servicemen and women involved in military operations, and, of course, with the civilian populations on all sides. They find themselves embroiled in a crisis not of their making, one which the leadership in Belgrade has certainly had both time and opportunity to avoid.

"The evils of ethnic cleansing and the misery of displaced populations are no more tolerable now than they were at earlier stages of the Balkan crisis.

"At the same time, the use of force on behalf of the wider international community cannot be undertaken lightly, and in that sense it must always be a matter for regret.

"Nor can force be an end in itself; there must be clear objectives and well-defined limits. With that in mind, the only acceptable outcome to this crisis is a just and lasting peace through negotiation in good faith."