UN demands cease-fire in Kosovo

NEW YORK -- The UN Security Council is demanding a cease-fire in Kosovo and threatening further action if the violence continues in the Yugoslav province, where tens of thousands of refugees face a desperate winter.

A draft of a resolution expected to be adopted yesterday does not specifically authorise Nato forces to stop the Serb offensive on ethnic Albanian separatists. But countries such as the United States have said such authorisation is not necessary for military intervention.

The United States has asked the Nato governing body to begin rounding up commitments from Nato countries to contribute to a possible multinational force.

The UN resolution does not go that far, stating only that "the council would consider further action and additional measures to maintain or restore peace and stability in the region", if a political settlement is not reached. It gives no time frame.

The Kosovo Liberation Army is fighting for the independence of Kosovo; Western nations have called on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to return the autonomy he stripped from the province in 1989.

In addition to demanding a cease-fire, the draft resolution urges the Serbs and ethnic Albanian leadership to start negotiating a solution to the crisis.

It demands Mr Milosevic allow international monitoring in Kosovo and the return of refugees.

Russia, which has opposed force in the past, said it would go along with the resolution. China, however, still had problems with the threat of further measures.

British ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said the goal of the resolution was to end the fighting and halt a humanitarian disaster.

Meanwhile it was reported in Vaganica, Yugoslavia, that Serb forces drove deeper into the heartland of the ethnic Albanian rebellion yesterday in a defiant show of power. Serb artillery boomed in the west and east of the Drenica region of central Kosovo as up to 20000 civilians were believed trapped by the fighting.