Rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) yesterday demanded an "urgent and energetic" intervention by NATO to end the "humanitarian tragedy" in the province.
"We demand an urgent and energetic NATO intervention in order to end the humanitarian tragedy which continued in Kosovo," the rebels said in a statement in Pristina.
"All solutions but independence are not acceptable to the KLA, after all that Milosevic's criminals have done to the Albanian people in Kosovo."
The KLA called on all Kosovo Albanian political parties to create a "government of national salvation" which would conduct negotiations for the "independence" of Kosovo.
Referring to the Kosovo Albanian leader, Dr Ibrahim Rugova, the KLA said: "We will not allow one party to decide the fate of Kosovo." And it called for the dissolution of Dr Rugova's negotiating team.
The KLA added that, despite the "ceasefire" it proclaimed last week, the Serbian forces "do not respect" UN Security Council Resolution 1199 and "continue to reinforce their positions and create new bases".
The rebels also accused security forces of preventing displaced people from returning to their homes and of shelling ethnic Albanian villages in the last three days.
It also demanded "the liberation of all political prisoners, compensation [by Belgrade] of all damages and international judicial procedures for the crimes committed in Kosovo," the KLA political representative, Mr Adem Demaci, said.
In Geneva, the KLA said it would accept a three-year interim period of autonomy leading to self-determination for the province but rejected any accord that kept Kosovo within Serbia.
The Swiss-based KLA spokesman, Mr Bardhyl Mahmuti, said: "We insist on full independence. We cannot live with Serbia."
Albania, Yugoslavia and five of their Balkan neighbours made an unprecedented joint declaration in Antalya, Turkey, yesterday in support of UN demands for an end to the conflict in Kosovo.
"We reaffirmed our support for the UN Security Council Resolutions 1160 and 1199 and we called on all parties for their full implementation," the leaders of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia said in a joint declaration at the end of the two-day summit. UN Resolution 1199 calls for a ceasefire in Kosovo, a safe return of refugees and negotiations between the Yugoslav authorities and the Kosovan Albanians.
Yugoslavia's Prime Minister, Mr Momir Bulatovic, praised the resolution as a "balanced document striving for compromise".
He repeated that "our position remains that the problems can and will only be resolved within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia", but conceded that the conflict has "grave consequences for all countries in the region".
The Prime Minister of Turkey, Mr Mesut Yilmaz, stressed that the summit was the first multilateral forum in which Yugoslavia had discussed the Kosovo conflict. "It is an important result that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Albania sat at one table and achieved an agreement on a text" addressing Kosovo, he said.
The Prime Minister of Greece, Mr Costas Simitis, said the Kosovo declaration was "an example that we can really co-operate".
The Yugoslav delegation in Antalya had initially refused to discuss the Kosovo crisis with the other six countries taking part in the summit, prompting Albanian calls for a separate resolution condemning Yugoslavia's crackdown in the province.