The attack reduced the Serbian State Television (RTS) building to rubble but the broadcaster was back on the air within six hours. Yugoslav officials were quoted as saying nine people were killed in the four-storey building.

In Washington, US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were quoted as saying that Milosevic's offer, made in talks with Russian Balkan envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin yesterday, fell "well short" of NATO demands.

Other members of the 19-nation alliance, however, were cautious and demanded more details on Milosevic's position.

Blair, in Washington for celebrations marking the alliance's 50th anniversary this weekend, said NATO would step up its air attacks until Milosevic withdrew from Kosovo where his troops are driving majority ethnic albanians out of the Serbianprovince.

Blair, who is emerging as a hawk on Kosovo in the alliance said of the offer, said "it may be an indication of changes in Milosevic's position but we just do not know enough about the details of this yet.

"In any event, the NATO demands are clear and they have to be met," he told BBC radio.

Chernomyrdin, returning to Moscow from Belgrade, said he was ready to meet NATO leaders as soon as tomorrow to negotiate an end to the Kosovo conflict.In talks with Milosevic, the Russian envoy said he secured an agreement on an "international presence" in Kosovo.

Spelling out NATO's demands to Milosevic, Blair said: "He has to get his forces and his paramilitaries and his military apparatus out of Kosovo and those people have got to be allowed back to their homes and towns and villages under the security of an international force.

"We have got to carry on with this air campaign and intensify it until these demands are met," he said.

A US official said both Clinton and Blair had rejected Milosevic'speace offer. "They both felt that what Milosevic was offering at this stage fell well short of what was required to meet NATO's conditions," the spokesman said.

Germany, which has deployed combat forces for the first time since World War II, adopted a cautious tone to Milosevic's offer. France was expected to be receptive to any Russian involvement in a peace agreement and Athens was positive towards the peace feelers.

In Belgrade, rescue workers searched in darkness for survivors in the remains of the TV building.

"It must be seen as an intensification of our attacks at the very brains of Milosevic's military apparatus and leadership," a NATO official in Brussels told Reuters.

Nato charged with assassination bid
Washington: Yugoslavia has charged that the NATO attack on the residence of Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic was an attempt to assassinate him.

While the NATO spokesmen justified the attack by saying that the attack was on a "legitimate" target because it was being usedas "a command and control centre" to repress ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

A US presidential finding now bars assassination by any US agency. But there is a major loophole: If during an attack on a legitimate target during a military operation or a local coup attempt supported by the US, the killing of the leader of the country happens "incidentally," that is justified.