UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is pushing for an expanded UN role in finding a diplomatic solution to the Kosovo crisis although the key members of the 15-nation Security Council remain divided over the conflict.

“I believe that there is a broad consensus that the United Nations should play a significant role in the search for a diplomatic solution aimed at ensuring lasting peace and stability in the region,” Annan told a meeting of Council delegates Monday.

He urged a resumption of talks on the future of Kosovo among “all parties at the earliest possible moment.”

Annan also announced Monday that he would fly to Germany and Russia next week for ways to end the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) operation against Yugoslavia, and that he would appoint a special UN envoy on Kosovo.

He said that the Security Council was united in its support for a UN role in resolving the crisis, in which NATO forces have launched four weeks of air strikes on Yugoslav targets while Yugoslav forces expel thousands of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.

Annan conceded, however, “we are still far away” from any Council unity over what to do about Kosovo.

The Council’s key NATO members – Britain, France and the United States – want a NATO-based force to keep the peace in Kosovo, while Russia and China want the European military alliance to cease its attacks.

European Union (EU) leaders have proposed a short-term international protectorate over Kosovo but China’s UN ambassador, Qin Huasun lashed out at any peace proposals that did not take into account Belgrade’s own views.

“It is very important to seek the consent of the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia when any plan is to be discussed,” Qin argued Monday. “We are against imposing any solution on Yugoslavia.

” As for now, it is a matter of priority for NATO to cease immediately its military action against Yugoslavia.”

Russia is also pushing for a diplomatic solution in which UN officials can be involved in winning a halt to both the NATO attacks and the expulsions of Kosovo’s Albanian majority.

Annan himself stressed that, if Belgrade would halt the expulsions, withdraw irs forces from Kosovo, allow refugees to return to their homes and accept an international military force in Kosovo, he would urge NATO “to suspend immediately the air bombardments” on Yugoslavia.

Yet nearly four weeks into the NATO assault, the prospect for a halt to the air strikes appeared dim. The massive exodus of Kosovar Albanians – UN officials estimated that more than 69,000 Kosovars have fled their province in the last four days alone – has hardened both the UN and Western stances on Kosovo.

“The renewed expulsions and the harrowing stories that are being relayed to UN officials on the borders leave us in little doubt as to what is taking place within Kosovo,” said Martin Griffiths, a senior official at the UN humanitarian office.

“Surely it has become evident that we are witnessing crimes against humanity,” Griffiths told the Security Council. “Before our very eyes, we are seeing the systematic, forcible emptying of Kosovo of its remaining ethnic Albanian population.”

In addition to the more than 600,000 mainly Muslim Kosovars who have fled to neighbouring Macedonia and Albania, Griffiths said that some 73,000 Kosovars are displaced within the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro and the number of people displaced within Kosovo may be “as high as 700,000.” (Griffiths conceded, however, that there is no reliable data available from Yugoslavia.)

Such figures would mean that more than 70 percent of Kosovo’s 1.8 million people had been forced from their homes since last year, with the bulk of them leaving since the NATO bombardment began on Mar. 24.

At the same time, the United States has hardened its own stance by alleging that Yugoslav forces could be responsible for massacres numbering in the thousands.

David Scheffer, US ambassador-at-large for crimes against humanity, claimed that some 100,000 Kosovar males are unaccounted for and added, “You’re actually looking at the possibility of tens of thousands of Kosovars who not only are at risk but also may actually have perished at this stage.”

UN officials also drrew attention to the damage caused by the daily NATO attacks.

“According to reports from the (Yugoslav) authorities, some 500 civilians have been killed and over 4,000 wounded as a result of NATO’s aerial bombardment,” Griffiths said. “In addition, there can be little doubt that the bombing has had a damaging impact upon the daily life of the general population.”