The U.N. Security Council approves NATO's plan

In this story:

• NATO generals take message to Belgrade
• 5 wounded along Albanian border
• Related stories and sites

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The United Nations Security Council has approved a NATO plan to send unarmed monitors into Kosovo to help ensure that Yugoslavia complies with its promises to stop its violence against ethnic Albanian separatists.

But the resolution approved Saturday by the council in New York avoided the contentious issue of whether NATO has the right to use military strikes if the Yugoslavs don't live up to their international agreements regarding Kosovo.

The text neither explicitly endorsed the use of force nor forbade it. However, it did authorize NATO to use air surveillance to verify Yugoslav compliance and would also allow the use of force to protect or evacuate monitors if they were endangered.

China's Ambassador Qin Huasun abstains from the Security Council vote

Language on any other possible military action was deleted to prevent a veto by Russia and China, who oppose military strikes. Both abstained rather than vote no, and the resolution passed 13 to 0.

However, both the United States and Britain maintain that previous U.N. resolutions already allow NATO to launch military strikes if the Yugoslavs continue to crack down on ethnic Albanians, who make up about 90 percent of the province's population.

"We and our NATO allies have the authority, the will and the means to take action if necessary to ensure full implementation," said U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

NATO generals take message to Belgrade

In Belgrade on Saturday, two top NATO generals met with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his army chief of staff to press Western demands that the Yugoslavs move more quickly in withdrawing police and army units from Kosovo.

Slobodan Milosevic

The high-level meetings included U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme military commander in Europe; German General Klaus Naumann, chairman of NATO's military committee; and Gen. Momcilo Perisic, the Yugoslav army chief of staff.

While both sides remained tight-lipped about what transpired, a diplomatic source speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that NATO wanted to let the Yugoslavs know they must do more to pull their troops from Kosovo, a province of Serbia, which is one of the two republics that make up the Yugoslav federation.

On October 12, Milosevic agreed to withdraw most of his forces from Kosovo, to allow 2,000 unarmed international monitors to come into the province, and to cooperate with international efforts to help ethnic Albanian refugees made homeless by eight months of fighting.

A Tuesday deadline has been set for the troop withdrawals. But as Western nations are just beginning to organize the monitoring force, the deadline is widely expected to be extended.

5 wounded along Albanian border

The Kosovo Liberation Army, which has been fighting for independence, has declared a unilateral cease-fire, though it retained the right to self-defense. Most fighting stopped in late September, but there is still sporadic gunfire.

Early Saturday, five refugees from Prizren, in southern Kosovo, were seriously wounded by Yugoslav border guards while they were trying to cross into neighboring Albania, according to the Albanian interior ministry.

The five victims were airlifted to a military hospital in the Albanian capital, Tirana, where they were reported in critical condition late Saturday.

Reuters contributed to this report.