Albright (left) meets with Holbrooke in Brussels

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- Putting defiant Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on notice over Serb attacks in Kosovo province, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Thursday warned "time is all but gone" and said NATO could within days order airstrikes against Serbia.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Albright predicted NATO's political arm, the North Atlantic Council, would "in the next few days" authorize NATO's supreme commander to order strikes against Serb targets to punish Milosevic for failing to withdraw his troops from Kosovo.

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"I am confident we have the legitimate grounds," Albright said, dismissing requests from hesitant allies who would prefer the U.N. Security Council issue another resolution on how to compel Milosevic to withdraw his troops from Kosovo and enter negotiations on the province's status.

Russia, a Security Council member which opposes using military force against Serbia, has vowed to veto such a resolution.

"If force is necessary, we will not be deterred by the fact that Russians do not agree with that," Albright told reporters.

Milosevic ordered his army into Kosovo in February to put down a separatist uprising. His refusal to comply with a U.N. mandate to withdraw forces, combined with allegations that his forces carried out mass killings of ethnic Albanian Kosovars -- after the U.N. mandate was issued -- has angered Western leaders and pushed NATO to the brink of attack.

Speaking at a White House event in Washington, U.S. President Bill Clinton said NATO needed to be ready to avert a possible wider war and a humanitarian crisis.

"We face a humanitarian crisis that could be a catastrophe in the making as tens of thousands of homeless refugees risk freezing or starving to death when winter comes on," Clinton said, referring to thousands of ethnic Albanian Kosovars displaced from their homes this year.

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"Our goal is simple: It is full compliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions by President Milosevic," Clinton said. "We would prefer -- we would far prefer -- to secure President Milosevic's compliance with the will of the international community in a peaceful manner. But NATO must be prepared to act militarily to protect our interests and prevent another humanitarian catastrophe in the Balkans."

Albright: Doing minimum is 'not good enough'

Albright also warned that Milosevic has so far done "only the minimum required to avoid NATO air strikes" and said "the minimum is not good enough."

NATO's most recent information puts 14,000 troops still in Kosovo, and indicates at least 50 percent of paramilitary police originally in the province are still there -- roughly 11,000.

"I believe we are at a crossroads of in the history of the Balkans as well as NATO," Albright told reporters. "The decisions we take in the days ahead will be crucial for us all. NATO is our institution of choice when it comes to preserving peace and defending western values on the continent .... It must be prepared to act when a threat of this nature exists on Europe's doorstep."

In a gesture to Milosevic, even while condemning his actions, Albright reiterated that the United States does not support independence for the ethnic Albanians who make up about 90 percent of Kosovo's population.

Rather, the United States supports a restoration of autonomy or self-rule which Milosevic nullified in 1989.

Envoy Holbrooke headed back to Belgrade

Earlier Thursday, Albright directed U.S. mediator Richard Holbrooke to return to Belgrade to try again to persuade Yugoslavia's president not to force a showdown with NATO.

Ivanov meets with Milosevic (right) earlier on Thursday

Albright's directive to Holbrooke came after the envoy briefed her and Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the supreme commander of the U.S.-led NATO alliance, on his most recent round of negotiations with Milosevic, U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin said.

Albright and Holbrooke were to meet later Thursday with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, after which Albright planned to fly to London for a meeting with officials from the six-nation Contact Group, which oversees peace in the Balkans.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who met with Milosevic on Thursday, planned to brief the Contact Group on his view of Milosevic's stance.

In addition, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Greece have all expressed reservations about military action against Milosevic, and disagreed with the U.S. position that no new U.N. Security Council resolution would be needed to authorize an attack.

The NATO alliance is expected to meet on Saturday and the activation order to use force against Serbia will probably come at that meeting, or no later than Monday, one NATO official told CNN. An activation order puts "people in place" in preparation for the next step -- the decision to act, or "strike order," which must be made by the North Atlantic Council or the civilian leadership of NATO.

U.S. and NATO officials seem confident that despite the dissenting voices, a consensus will be reached in favor of strikes against Serbia.

"We have to have a discussion on the alliance. It is a key issue but we will find a consensus at the end of the day which all of the allies will be comfortable with," said a NATO official who was reacting to a statement from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Prodi called for more diplomacy, and said any decision to strike must be "legitimized" by the United Nations.

Italy hosts major U.S. and NATO airbases in Aviano, Vicenza, Villafranca and other locations.

There is no precedent for a NATO ally opting out of alliance action. In 1995, when NATO bombed Serbian targets during the Bosnian War, Greece did not participate in the action, but it did allow its bases to be used for the operations.

U.S. officials said earlier Thursday that any NATO strike would be carried out solely with air power. The U.S. was not offering to send U.S. ground forces to Kosovo as part of an international force to keep any peace settlement that may result from the air strikes, U.S. officials also said.

Some 7,500 U.S. troops are currently stationed in neighboring Bosnia as part of a 33,000-troop peacekeeping force.

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