• Possibility for strikes strengthens
• Serbian citizen: 'Tell them to bomb Milosevic's home'
• Lessons from Bosnia
• Other developments
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LONDON (CNN) -- The international community on Friday fired more shots in its verbal assault against Slobodan Milosevic, while Russia hardened its stance against possible NATO strikes to punish the Serbian president for his bloody crackdown on Kosovo's bid for independence.

In London, officials from the six-nation Contact Group -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia -- gathered for a second day to discuss the Kosovo crisis.

In Washington, as he stopped to talk to reporters on the White House South Lawn, President Bill Clinton said he and European leaders agreed that the violence needed to be stopped and that a settlement for Kosovo needed to be negotiated immediately.

"We don't want thousands upon thousands of people to be caught up in a war or to starve or freeze this winter because they have been displaced," said Clinton, portraying a scenario that could repeat what happened during the Bosnian War.

"We cannot allow this conflict to spread again and risk what we stopped in Bosnia starting all over again in Kosovo," he said.

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In Blackpool, British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned world leaders to "get our act together now" and muscle Milosevic out of Kosovo.

"What is happening in Kosovo is entirely unacceptable and the only way of stopping it is if President Milosevic knows that if he continues with these policies of barbarism towards the ethnic community there he will get a punishment from the international community," Blair said.

Despite the escalating sense of urgency among the international community, Russia could not be swayed from its belief that its Serbian ally should not be bombed.

Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov warned Friday that NATO's military might would not solve Kosovo's troubles, and he reiterated Russia's position that any NATO military action requires authorization from the United Nations.

Earlier Friday, the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, unanimously passed a resolution vowing to consider NATO military action without U.N. approval an "illegal act of aggression."

The resolution calls on the renewal of all agreements between Russia and NATO if the western alliance opts for force against Serbia.

Possibility for strikes strengthens

The possibility for air strikes against Serbia strengthened on Friday, and was expected to increase within the coming days.

With a fist still clenched, the body of a victim of an alleged Serbian attack on ethnic Albanians lies on the ground in Kosovo Monday

In Washington, U.S. officials continued to brief U.S. senators on the situation in Kosovo, including recent reports of at least two massacres of ethnic Albanians earlier this week by Serb fighters.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told reporters that the United States continues to believe a diplomatic solution is the best way to end the crisis, but that "NATO is now prepared to act."

When reporters asked U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen if there was a deadline in place for Serbia to comply with a U.N. resolution mandating its withdrawal from Kosovo, the secretary replied: "Soon."

In London for the Contact Group meeting, Washington's top mediator in Kosovo said the world had little patience left for Milosevic and his continued defiance.

"Patience has been exhausted and we need to see a pullback of the (Serbian) security forces, whose only purpose at this point that we can see is to be in opposition to the general public there," said Christopher Hill.

Hill said Serbia has no justification for maintaining a show of strength in Kosovo because the Kosovo Liberation Army had few fighters left in the field.

In Brussels, diplomatic sources indicated NATO defense ministers planned to meet next week.

What action the allies chooses to take may well depend on a report due Monday from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on whether Serbia is complying with last week's resolution issued by the U.N. Security Council.

Milosevic's government on Friday issued an invitation for Annan to visit Yugoslavia, saying such a visit would help the U.N. leader to understand "the real situation in Kosovo."

Serbian citizen: 'Tell them to bomb Milosevic's home'

The possibility of NATO air strikes got mixed reviews on the streets of Belgrade, the Serbian capital.

"If air strikes could happen without human casualties and if that could bring Milosevic's rule to an end, I would not mind," said Svetozar Tadic, a 31-year-old unemployed engineer selling cigarettes on the street.

"Tell them to bomb Milosevic's home in Dedinje -- and save us further trouble," said Jovanka Zivkovic, referring to the Belgrade residential area where the Serbian president lives with his family.

Zivkovic, a bank clerk, said she only wished her grown son could be safe in Serbia.

"But as long as Milosevic decides on our fate, we cannot be safe. That's why he must go," she said.

Marija Kostic, a 75-year-old retired nurse, said "ordinary people will lose" if NATO unleashes bombs on Serbian targets.

"Their bombs would only help extremists who would then take revenge against people who think differently. Milosevic will benefit from that," Kostic said.

Lessons from Bosnia

The former international peace mediator in Bosnia warned on Friday that the international community needed to formulate a clear political strategy on Kosovo before it launched a military intervention.

"Military action can make sense within the context of a political strategy and political plan," said Carl Bildt, the world's top peace envoy in Bosnia from 1995 to 1997. "But air strikes as a substitute for policy are a recipe for disaster."

Bildt said he could not yet see a political strategy emerging from the Contact Group, and that he believed the inter-ethnic animosities were much deeper in Kosovo than in Bosnia.

"The important thing is not what happens when the first bomb falls but what happens after the last bomb has fallen," Bildt said.

A peace solution for Bosnia was imposed after three years of war, after all sides were tired of fighting, Bildt said. In Kosovo, he noted, too many people were still willing to fight.

In addition, Bildt said, Russia should be willing to go along with a credible political strategy.

Bildt himself is arguing for a NATO deployment in northern Albania, which would help strengthen Albania itself and seal the nation off from Kosovo to prevent the spread of a conflict zone across the Balkans.

Albania's new Prime Minister Pandeli Majko said Friday his nations would soon announce a "new step," along with NATO and the world community, on the crisis in Kosovo. Majko did not elaborate.

Other developments

• Diplomatic sources in Brussels said Friday that NATO defense ministers may hold a special meeting next week to discuss military intervention in Kosovo.

  The Pentagon said U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen tentatively plans to stop in Brussels next week for consultations with NATO allies. Cohen will then continue on a scheduled trip to the Middle East.

• Yugoslavia asked Finland to send a team of forensic specialists to investigate reports of recent massacres in Kosovo, Finnish officials said. The request came after the European Union pressured Milosevic's government to allow such investigations.

• Spain and Britain warned their citizens not to travel to Yugoslavia and urged their citizens in Yugoslavia to leave. The United States, on Thursday, indicated it was preparing to issue a similar warning.

• Britain said it was doubling the number of strike aircraft ready for possible military action against Serbia. The Ministry of Defense said it was sending four Harrier ground attack jets to join four others already based with NATO in southern Italy.

• England canceled a soccer game in London against Yugoslavia. The English Football Association said going ahead with the November 18 game under the current circumstances would be "insensitive in the extreme and wrong."

• The European Commission said it was investigating reports that several European airlines had an arrangement with Yugoslav carrier JAT to take its passengers on flights to and from Belgrade. The practice would not violate an EU flight ban recently imposed on Yugoslav carriers, but would go against the spirit of the ban and could prompt the EU to tighten the regulation, an EU spokeswoman said.

• Carlos Westendorp, the international community high representative in Yugoslavia, said that NATO military action is highly likely, unless Milosevic ends the bloodshed in Kosovo.

  "What we are seeing in Kosovo is very similar to what happened in Bosnia," Westendorp said, "so I see clear signals that action from the international community is very likely unless Milosevic complies with their requirements."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

"Kosovo: A Short History" by Noel Malcolm "Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo" by Miranda Vickers "Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo" by Roger Cohen "A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples" by Frederick Bernard Singleton "Unwinnable Wars: American Power and Ethnic Conflict" by David Callahan Click here for additional reading on Yugoslavia