By Anne Swardson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 10, 1998; Page A13

LONDON, March 9—The United States and five other nations that oversee the troubled former Yugoslavia agreed today on an arms embargo and other steps to pressure Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end violent repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Russia, which had been opposed to any new sanctions, went along with two of the four measures agreed to -- the arms embargo and a ban on transfers of equipment that could be used for repression. Faced with opposition from France, Italy and Russia, however, the group could not agree to freeze overseas assets of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbian governments, a measure considered the toughest of the possible economic sanctions. Instead, the six nations will discuss the possibility in Washington March 25.

The accord was more than the United States had hoped to achieve during Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright's three-day tour of European capitals that culminated in today's meeting of the Yugoslavia "contact group." But Albright called the measures only "satisfactory," and U.S. officials indicated they expected more pressure would be necessary to achieve any easing of violence in Kosovo.

The possibility of military force by Western powers to stem the violence was not discussed during the meeting. "The United States believes it is essential to move forward" toward a political settlement, Albright said, though she added: "The United States continues to say that our options are open."

Albright told the meeting the United States reserves the right to take unilateral action. "We know what we need to know to believe we are seeing ethnic cleansing all over again," she was quoted as telling the group.

Albright discussed the crisis in Kosovo over lunch here today with NATO Secretary General Javier Solana and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

Senior NATO diplomats in Brussels said alliance defense experts are studying what measures could be taken to contain the conflict and prevent it from spreading into neighboring Albania and Macedonia.

They said a formal request by Albania for military assistance in the form of a border-monitoring presence could be made Wednesday at an emergency meeting called by Albania under NATO's Partnership for Peace program, which is designed to foster military cooperation with non-NATO countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Under the program, any member may request a meeting if it feels its security is threatened directly.

NATO officials said Solana wanted the "contact group" to avoid the mistakes of the Bosnia crisis and keep the alliance informed about all possibilities of urgent military action, especially to stabilize Albania and Macedonia, which has a population that is 40 percent ethnic Albanian. About 700 troops from the United States and Nordic countries are serving as a monitoring force in Macedonia under a U.N. mandate that will expire in August. NATO sources said they expect Albania will request a similar-type force to monitor its borders.

Dozens of people, mostly ethnic Albanians, have been killed since Serbian police began a crackdown against separatist Albanian rebels 10 days ago. Western powers, while branding the Kosovo rebels "terrorists," are urging Milosevic to negotiate with Kosovo, a Serbian province that was stripped of its autonomy in 1989.

"The situation in Kosovo cries out for a political solution," Cook said. "We demand that President Milosevic commence a political dialogue with moderate, peaceful leadership to find a solution" to the escalating violence.

Distancing the Western powers from the independence demands of the ethnic Albanian guerrillas, Cook said he recognized that Kosovo is part of Yugoslavia but that "we cannot support the violent repression of nonviolent expression of political views." With Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia, the United States today called for a U.N. arms embargo against Yugoslavia, which now comprises Serbia (and its province of Kosovo) plus Montenegro, and a ban on sales of any equipment that could be used for repression.

Russia declined to approve two additional measures: denial of visas for Yugoslav representatives responsible for "repressive action" and a moratorium on government-financed credit for privatization of Yugoslav companies.

In addition, the contact group agreed to send former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez to the region to try to mediate on behalf of the 54-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. And it called on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to begin gathering information for possible prosecution of war crimes in Kosovo.

The group called on Milosevic to withdraw the police forces that have been killing civilians, to allow the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups to enter the region and to begin a dialogue with ethnic Albanian leaders.

Correspondent William Drozdiak in Berlin contributed to this report.