ASHINGTON - Senate efforts to impose a July 2001 deadline for withdrawing US troops from Kosovo became entangled in presidential politics yesterday as Republican George W. Bush signaled the plan was ''legislative overreach.''
Such opposition would probably kill the proposal, said Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska.
The Senate, tied up in parliamentary knots over a separate issue yesterday, did not debate as scheduled the amendment by Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner, Republican of Virginia, and Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia.
That measure, which initially appeared to be picking up GOP support, would cut funds for the 5,900 US troops in Kosovo beyond July 1, 2001, unless Clinton or his successor obtained express congressional approval for keeping them there.
But top Republicans said that Bush's newly expressed opposition to the measure threw uncertainty into the debate. The amendment, which Clinton has threatened to veto, is part of a $6.8 billion spending bill for military construction.
Republican senators said that Bush's opposition was initially conveyed privately to them. Late last night, Bush campaign spokesman Scott McClelland confirmed that the GOP presidential candidate had serious reservations about the amendment.
''The Clinton-Gore administration has failed to instill trust in Congress and the American people when it comes to our military and deployment of troops overseas. But the governor does not believe this provision is the way to resolve the lack of presidential leadership,'' McClelland said, reading a statement. ''Governor Bush views it as a legislative overreach on the powers of the presidency.''
''If Governor Bush objects, the amendment is dead,'' said Stevens. ''Among our people, there are enough who will support the Bush position.''
Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a principal opponent of the amendment, said, ''I'm pleased that this would be his point of view.''
In opposing the amendment, Bush was siding with a former rival, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.
McCain, who backed Bush's presidential bid last week, told reporters he thought the amendment was ''inappropriate.''
''We intend to fight strenuously to have this language taken from the bill. It's unnecessary,'' McCain said.
Meanwhile, Army General Wesley Clark, who oversaw the NATO air war, met privately with senators to lodge his objections to the amendment.
Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said that Clark suggested the troop withdrawal measure would create ''a year of uncertainty'' in the Balkans and embolden Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Warner, the amendment's sponsor, said he ''respectfully disagreed'' with the four-star general.
''Everybody says Milosevic is going to get a signal. We have adequate military firepower to knock him back on anything he does and believe me, Milosevic knows that,'' Warner said.
The underlying military construction bill would provide funds for the next fiscal year for the construction of barracks, family housing, military hospitals, and child care centers.
