Meanwhile, NATO proceeded with final preparations for airstrikes against Serb forces.

``This was not an act of war, it was plain cold murder,'' British foreign secretary Robin Cook said at a new conference at the Labour Party's annual conference in Blackpool, England.

He said the meeting would request an urgent report on Kosovo from UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. Britain takes over the Security Council presidency today which gives it the authority to put matters on the agenda.

Informal consultations on Kosovo were scheduled for today afternoon.

Cook warned that NATO airstrikes could follow Annan's report, which is a regular 30-day update that was expected late this week or early next week.

``Military action will flow from a political decision,'' he said.

Cook also called for a meeting in London tomorrow of thesix countries represented in the so-called contact group on Yugoslavia: the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia. He said the meeting was to find a ``way forward on a political settlement'' for Kosovo.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Cook by telephone that she agreed with convening a Council meeting to discuss the atrocities in Kosovo, State Department spokesman James Foley said.

As for the possibility of military action, Foley said, ``clearly, the clock is ticking.''

Annan is evaluating whether Serbia has complied with last week's Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in Kosovo, a withdrawal of Serbian troops, and the start of ``serious dialogue on real autonomy'' for the province.

In a possible precursor to his report, Annan issued a statement yesterday condemning the slaughter of 18 people in the Serbian province on Sunday. Annan added that the reported massacre was ``particularly shocking'' since the Yugoslav foreign minister had asrecently as Tuesday denied Serb involvement in any atrocities.

Serb police denied responsibility yesterday for the killings, in which men, women and children were shot in the back of the head and mutilated. The bodies were seen on Tuesday by diplomats and journalists in a forest in the Drenica region of Kosovo, where the ethnic Albanian majority is fighting for independence.

Hundreds of people have been killed, and over a quarter million have fled their homes since a Serb crackdown began in February. The West supports autonomy for Kosovo but not independence.