Meanwhile, details of the G-8 package remains to be worked out. Belgrade still hasn't accepted armed forces, while Russia and NATO have different interpretations of ``security presence.'' NATO wants an end to Serb repression, Russia wants a halt to bombing. The United States wants a total withdrawal of Serb forces, and Moscow-Belgrade is talking about partial pullout.

NATO planes hit targets across Yugoslavia early today, making clear that a new peace plan for Kosovo agreed by the West and Russia did not mean an end to its six-week-old bombing campaign.

The alliance launched its most sustained attacks so far on Yugoslavia's third largest city Nis, a day after strikes on fuel depots caused huge fires there, residents and Serbian media said. The mayor said missiles had hit the main hospital, killing at least two people.

"Missileshit a pathology ward, a parking lot and nearby buildings," mayor Zoran Zivkovic told Reuters by telephone.

Targets on the 44th night of the bombing campaign, aimed at forcing Belgrade to accept autonomy for Kosovo and allow back ethnic Albanian refugees under foreign military escort, included a bridge on the main railway line from Belgrade to Bucharest.

Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's home town was also rumoured to have been hit.

In Belgrade, relieved residents emerged from their homes and air-raid shelters after being spared from attack for the third straight night.For the first time this week public transport was running normally. Electricity was restored yesterday following attacks on power plants on Sunday which blacked out most of the country.

In Brussels, NATO said its air forces kept up pressure on Serb units on the ground in Kosovo despite unfavourable weather, largely pinning them down and preventing them from operating.

UNITED NATIONS: Belgrade has approved a UN humanitarianmission that Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants to send to Kosovo and other parts of Yugoslavia, the United Nations announced.

UN officials said that Annan had written a letter to NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana informing him of the mission. UN relief agencies have not been in Yugoslavia since the NATO air strikes began on March 24.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Under Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs, said he received word from Yugoslavia'S UN Ambassador, Vladislav Jovanovic, "confirming that his government would facilitate the conduct of the mission."

UN officials said an advance team of about five people would leave for Belgrade immediately to make arrangements and another team of about 15 would follow in one or two weeks. They said Yugoslavia had not set any preconditions.

Vieira de Mello also said in a statement that he raised "certain practical concerns" which Jovanovic would take up with his government. They included visa, security arrangements and transportation for the group, a UNofficial said.

Annan on tuesday said he planned to send a UN mission to Yugoslavia to "assess the situation on the ground, determine the magnitude of the problem and what we need to do to prepare the ground for the refugees to go back to Kosovo".

He also said he had not asked for a pause or lull in the NATO bombing while the team was in the country but indicated then some arrangements might be made, such as informing NATO.

NEW YORK: Former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt was named special envoy to the Balkans today by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Bildt's role will be to help find a political solution to the conflict pitting NATO against the former Yugoslav federation.

Annan announced Bildt's Appointment in a televised press conference organised by CNN world report forum at UN headquarters in New York.

Bildt was prime minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994 and a high representative for the European Union in the implementation of civilian aspects of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement inBosnia-Herzegovina.