TEHRAN In a statement released in Geneva, where he is attending a session of the UN's main inter-agency coordinating body, Mr. Annan urged the Yugoslav authorities to commit themselves to a set of specific conditions whose acceptance by Belgrade could lead to the suspension of air attacks by NATO. In his five-point proposal, the Secretary-General urged the Yugoslav authorities to end immediately the campaign of intimidation and expulsion of the civilian population, to cease all activities of military and paramilitary forces in Kosovo and to withdraw these forces.

The other terms included Belgrade's unconditional acceptance of the return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes and the deployment of an international military force to ensure a secure environment for the return of refugees. According to the proposal, the Yugoslav authorities would permit the international community to verify compliance with these undertakings, to a fax from the UN Information Center in Tehran, said.

Deeply distressed by the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Kosovo and the region, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday unveiled a proposal aimed at breaking the cycle of hostilities and serving as a prelude to a lasting political solution to the Kosovo crisis. Once the Yugoslav authorities accepted those conditions, the Secretary-General would urge the leaders of the North Atlantic Alliance to suspend immediately the air bombardments on the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Ultimately, Mr. Annan said, the proposed cessation of hostilities would serve as a prelude to a lasting political solution to the crisis which could only be achieved through diplomacy.

In this context, the Secretary-General stressed, I would urge the resumption of talks on Kosovo among all parties concerned at the earliest possible moment. Meanwhile in New York, Secretary-General's Spokesman Fred Echkard told a news conference that Mr. Annan's statement contained his thoughts on the minimum conditions that should be met, the need for a diplomatic process to get resumed and the need for a political solution and an end to the suffering.

The spokesman said that the Secretary-General would not have made this statement without thorough consultations. It is his initiative, but that does not imply that he is getting personally involved beyond that, Mr. Eckhard said. Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Safari here Monday criticized the West for misusing human rights issue as a political tool against other countries without itself advocating human rights in the real sense of the word.

In a meeting with Russian deputy foreign minister Vasily Sredin, the Iranian diplomat pointed to the ongoing crisis in Kosovo and said Iran is after a peaceful solution to the conflict. He said the Islamic Republic of Iran stresses on the employment of UN facilities in the settlement of the crisis. In reply Sredin said that Russia appreciates Iran's rational stance towards the human tragedy in Kosovo. But he voiced concern over the stance taken by the OIC Contact Group regarding the same crisis.

The Russian deputy foreign minister also expressed his country's readiness to cooperate with Iran in the area of human rights. Meanwhile, the United States and Russia failed Tuesday to settle their differences over NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia after what Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called ``an honest discussion'' with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. The three-hour meeting, held in an airport hotel, confirmed Russia's adamant opposition to the NATO offensive.

``The sooner NATO ceases airstrikes the easier it will be to find a solution,'' Ivanov said at a joint news conference. He described the dispute as ``a cul-de-sac,'' but joined Albright in pledging a continuing exchange between the United States and Russia on the Kosovo conflict, which has caused a deep rift in their relationship. Albright said the two sides agreed, at least in principle, that there must be an end to repression, a pullout of Serb troops and police from Kosovo, a return of displaced refugees to their homes and access for humanitarian organizations.

But Ivanov stressed they did not agree on the demand of the United States and its allies that a NATO-led peacekeeping force be deployed in Kosovo after a settlement to protect the ethnic Albanian civilians who have been the target of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's forces. Ivanov insisted the United Nations has a role in peacekeeping and said ``any form of international presence requires the agreement of the government of Yugoslavia.'' Milosevic has insisted all along that NATO troops could not be stationed on Serbian soil, and NATO's overture to Russia to be included in the force evidently was not enough to swing Moscow behind the idea.

However, Ivanov did not close the door completely. ``What the force is, we should discuss in the future,'' he said. Before the Albright-Ivanov meeting, her spokesman, James P. Rubin, said, ``we believe Russia has a constructive role to play in helping to bring about and implement a settlement.'' ``Russia has found itself out of the mainstream,'' Rubin said against a backdrop of U.S. assertions that virtually all of Europe supports the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia. Tuesday's fence-mending meeting with Ivanov follows a North Atlantic Council meeting in Brussels in which the 19 NATO allies considered having russian and other European troops join in enforcing a settlement in the province if Yugoslavia accepts peace terms.

NATO said on Tuesday it attacked two major oil refineries in Serbia and various targets near the Kosovo capital Pristina in overnight air strikes. The refineries at Pancevo, east of Belgrade, and in the northern second city of Novi Sad have been attacked several times in the last three weeks. Yugoslavia reported scores of casualties from attacks on Monday, including 10 people killed when a missile hit a train crossing a bridge in southeastern Serbia. NATO said it had not intended to hit the train.

A Russian government minister said the air campaign had killed more than 400 civilians in Yugoslavia and was only complicating the Kosovo crisis. As we are talking, ordinary people are being killed, first deputy foreign minister Alexander Avdeyev told French RTL radio in a telephone interview. More than 400 civilians have been killed so far...this crisis cannot be solved by bombings which aggravate the crisis.

Russia has felt angered and sidelined by the alliance's bombing of Yugoslavia, a Slav Orthodox ally. Avdeyev played down remarks by President Boris Yeltsin that the Kosovo crisis could escalate into a Third World War. But he said the air raids had damaged trust between Russia and the West that had built up after the collapse of the Soviet Union. We believe a solution is unthinkable without Russia and our efforts, Avdeyev said.

Albright and Ivanov were due to meet for two hours and hold a joint news conference at around midday (1000 GMT). Both would also meet Norway's Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek, Head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). We have and will continue to try to draw Russia back into the mainstream of international opinion and today's meeting is part of our continuing efforts to do so, Rubin told reporters on Albright's plane flying from Brussels. Diplomats say Albright and Vollebaek want to sound out chances of involving Russia in an international peacekeeping force if Milosevic agrees to stop driving out ethnic Albanians as the price for a halt to NATO bombings.

But Vollebaek has said that he does not expect any big breakthroughs at the talks, calling them a possible first step towards finding a solution to the conflict. NATO, listing conditions for an end to the Kosovo crisis on Monday in Brussels, pointedly left out any explicit reference to a NATO-led force for Kosovo perhaps a way to make it sound more palatable to Moscow. A Russian aid convoy arrived in Yugoslavia on Tuesday after being held up for two days in Hungary. The Hungarians blocked the convoy saying it carried diesel fuel that could be used by the Yugoslav military.

The Russians agreed to leave behind four truckloads of fuel. Meanwhile, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said Tuesday that the West has realized what sort of a trap it has fallen into in its air campaign against Yugosolavia. Gorbachev told Russian NTV television: The West has revealed its true colors ... by ignoring the (UN) Security Council, the United Nations, NATO's own statutes, the agreement between NATO and Russia ... and India and China, which have pronounced their opposition to military intervention.

The last president of the former Soviet Union said he had not ruled out acting as a mediator in the conflict if both sides agreed.