CBS’ Dan Rather has become the first network news anchor to get into Belgrade, Yugoslavia to cover the nonstop NATO bombing campaign.

The veteran war reporter now hopes to be the first Western journalist since the war began to interview Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

“It goes without saying that he is going to ask for the ‘big catch,'” said CBS News spokeswoman Kim Akhtar. “Dan has been itching to go over there since the beginning.”

In Serbia, Rather is traveling with a tiny production crew of about three people which, by most network standards for a star anchor, can be considered the equivalent of carrying a small overnight bag.

The CBS anchor touched down in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday and then drove to Serbia, most likely in a hired car, arriving in Belgrade at about 5 a.m. yesterday.

“He’s delighted about being there,” Akhtar said. “Any way you look at this it’s a pretty clean kill.”

Last night Rather did not anchor his “CBS Evening News” telecast from Belgrade but did file a report from there – which he’ll continue to do all this week.

In the meantime, John Roberts will sub for Rather on the “Evening News.”

It is not known if Rather will get to interview Milosevic, but the anchor is no stranger to snagging “the big get.”

Two weeks ago Rather was the first reporter to get a sitdown interview with President Clinton since the Lewinsky scandal broke.

And, almost 10 years ago, Rather was the first network anchor to interview Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War.

Meanwhile, CBS has gone without a correspondent in Yugoslavia for close to three weeks since the bombing began.

CBS correspondent Mark Phillips had been in Belgrade but was dragged out of his hotel room at 3:30 a.m., arrested and then thrown out of Yugoslavia after the bombing started three weeks ago, when the Yugoslavian government ordered journalists from NATO countries out of the country.

NBC and ABC have no current plans to send anchors Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings into the war zone.

“We have had two extraordinary foreign correspondents [Ron Allen and Jim Maceda] in Belgrade from the beginning of the air strikes, and we are very pleased with our coverage and the depth of our reporting,” said an NBC News spokeswoman.

“We evaluate this story daily, and at this point Tom’s most effective role is as an anchor reporting on different elements of the story from here.”

“For us and for our purposes putting [Jennings] into Yugoslavia doesn’t seem to us to be the best use of his reporting expertise,” an ABC News spokeswoman said.

Michael Starr contributed to this report.