In this story:

• Meeting with Milosevic 'potentially decisive'
• Germany: Russia could complicate Kosovo issue
• Contact Group: Kosovo rebels must end attacks
• NATO's options for Kosovo conflict
• Related stories and sites

LONDON (Reuters) -- World powers demanded on Friday that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic end a bloody crackdown in Kosovo immediately, but Russia spelled out its hostility to any military intervention by NATO.

Foreign ministers of the six-nation Contact Group -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- approved a set of demands for Russian President Boris Yeltsin to put to Milosevic in Moscow next week.

The ministers said in a statement they had agreed to send Belgrade "a set of essential points on which they require immediate action to prevent any further deterioration in the situation."

The points included an end to all action by Serbian security forces against civilians, unimpeded access for international monitors and humanitarian organizations, the right of refugees to return to their homes and rapid progress in a dialogue with the Kosovo Albanian leadership.

The ministers stressed the importance of Milosevic taking advantage of his meeting with Yeltsin "to announce progress on the above steps and to commit Belgrade to their implementation in full."

Meeting with Milosevic 'potentially decisive'

Western powers also announced an additional sanction, banning flights to and from their countries by Yugoslav airlines. Russia dissented, as it also has from a ban on new investment in Serbia and a freeze on Serbian and Yugoslav state assets.

In a veiled hint at possible military action, the ministers said that if Milosevic did not comply, they would move to further measures "including those which may require the authorization of a U.N. Security Council resolution."

However, Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, whose country has a Security Council veto, reiterated Moscow's opposition to the use of force.

"Measures are being considered against Yugoslavia. We are against these measures, but at the same time, there will be an exceptionally important meeting with Milosevic," Primakov told reporters.

"All members of the Contact Group and the (Group of Eight) agree that the forthcoming meeting of Milosevic and Yeltsin in Moscow will be not just useful but potentially decisive," he said.

Germany: Russia could complicate Kosovo issue

NATO defense ministers agreed on Thursday to stage a display of air power around Kosovo's borders next week and ordered military planners to prepare options for possible air strikes and even the use of ground troops.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook
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U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stressed that the West did not want to use force and would prefer a diplomatic solution.

But, she added: "As we have found in other places, the threat of the use of force... does work in support of diplomacy."

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he hoped Russia, which has close ties with fellow Orthodox Slavs in Serbia, would press the international community's demands.

German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel told reporters: "The problem is that Russia rejects any mandate whatsoever for intervention in Kosovo. If Russia sticks to this position, that would complicate things."

On the eve of the meeting, Cook and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met the leader of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, Ibrahim Rugova, to endorse his flagging effort to achieve a peaceful settlement granting his people self-rule.

Contact Group: Kosovo rebels must end attacks

Rugova's standing with the 1.8 million Kosovar Albanians has been undermined by the lack of progress in talks with Milosevic and the growing popularity of pro-independence Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

The Contact Group declared: "It is essential that Kosovo Albanian extremists refrain from further violent attacks."

Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo protested the actions of Serb police earlier this year

Serbia's most outspoken nationalist politician, Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj, regarded by the West as an apostle of ethnic cleansing, said on Thursday the NATO threat must be taken seriously and vowed a full defense.

NATO defense ministers commissioned plans for "halting or disrupting a systematic campaign of violent repression and expulsion" against ethnic Albanians in the southern Serbian province.

NATO's options for Kosovo conflict

They ordered NATO forces to conduct "appropriate air exercises" as quickly as possible in Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which border Kosovo, with "the aim of demonstrating NATO's capability to project power rapidly into the region."

The NATO declaration said military planners would be told to give priority to "options which are effective and readily available."

These would include a no-fly zone, a heavy weapons exclusion zone, a civilian air embargo, suppression of the Yugoslav air force, air strikes at targets throughout federal Yugoslavia and the use of ground forces.

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