Leaders turn up heat on Yugoslav chief

International leaders are ratcheting up the pressure on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, warning that NATO airstrikes are inevitable unless he takes decisive action to end the crisis in Kosovo province.

Fearing airstrikes, Yugoslav generals put the nation's air defense on high alert but tried a belated compromise by moving some tanks and other heavy equipment out of Kosovo. A Western diplomat said up to 120 Yugoslav army armored vehicles, including tanks, have been pulled out.In New York, U.N. chief Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council that "systematic terror" had been inflicted on Kosovo civilians recently and Yugoslav forces were mostly responsible.

But Annan said he did not have the means to verify Milosevic's compliance with U.N. resolutions demanding a cease-fire. He suggested the panel's 15 members make their own judgment.

However, NATO's secretary-general Javier Solana said Monday that Yugoslavia had not complied with U.N. resolutions on Kosovo and stressed that NATO was ready to launch a military attack.

"The reality coming to us is that the compliance is not yet in place," Solana told reporters.

U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said Monday that the Kosovo situation remains critical despite a lull in fighting and the removal of some Yugoslav tanks and troops. Holbrooke spoke in Brussels, Belgium, en route to Belgrade to meet with Milosevic.

"We hope to make clear to President Milosevic and the people of Yugoslavia the extreme gravity of the situation," Holbrooke said after a meeting with NATO leaders.

Holbrooke said he was told that NATO preparations continued unabated. "At NATO, the planning for military action is serious, intense and sustained," he said.

Serbian police and the Yugoslav army have routed separatist Kosovo Albanian rebels in the crackdown that began in late February. The conflict has killed hundreds - most of them Albanian civilians - and left more than 275,000 refugees. Kosovo is in southern Serbia, the main republic of Yugoslavia.

Meanwhile, the leader of Yugoslavia's other republic, Montenegro, called on Milosevic to accept all international demands and avert a NATO attack.

"We have to avert a clash with the whole world, a confrontation which we are bound to lose," Montenegro's pro-Western president, Milo Djukanovic, said in a statement. Djukanovic, a staunch Milosevic critic, blamed Yugoslavia's problems on Milosevic's "undemocratic regime."

Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet met in special session Monday and were united in urging imminent airstrikes against Serb forces in Kosovo, officials said.