BLACE, Macedonia. Apr 3: Macedonia announced today it could no longer accept more Kosovo refugees and called on its neighbours and the European Union to help shelter a massive wave of ethnic Albanians, reports AP.

Saying its fragile democracy and economy were at stake, the Macedonian Security Council said that its army would act to prevent the illegal entry of any more refugees.

"It was assessed that the security situation in the country could be seriously endangered because of the huge wave of refugees from Kosovo, which are more than 50.000." the council said after an all-night meeting.

But it stopped short of saying Macedonia would seal its borders with neighboring Yugoslavia to all travellers or turn back any asylum seekers.

With another 50.000 refugees waiting to enter, the statement said "this council concluded that the Republic of Macedonia cannot objectively accept such a huge number of refugees."

Gen. Trajce Krstevski. chief of the Macedonian general staff, announced a partial mobilisation of the 12.000-mem-ber armed forces for controlling the frontier.

Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic, has large Serb and ethnic Albanian communities and fears the tensions which exploded into open conflict in Kosovo could sweep this country.

The council — made up of President Kiro Gligorov. Prime Minister Liubco Giorgievski, and senior Cabinet members — decided to accept only those refugees for which the international community had organised entrance into another country.

The council also appealed

for the international community to provide urgent humanitarian assistance for the refugees already in Macedonia "with the aim of preventing the humanitarian catastrophe."

The announcement came as the UN High Commissioner for refugees said the number of refugees packed in a small field in this river valley in the noman's land straddling the border with Yugoslavia reached 65.000 today.

As dawn broke, dozens of heavily armed police officers arrived at this border crossing, where refugees are packed into an area about the size of three football fields. Most came from the Kosovo provincial capital of Pristina on at least 12 trains over the past two days.

UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghedini denied reports that international aid agencies were not supplying enough food and blankets to keep people warm, but did say local authorities had been overwhelmed by the sheer number of arrivals.

"It is bigger than we had prepared for. Macedonians had been prepared for 2,000 or 3,000" per day. she said.

She said UNHCR, working with the Macedonia Red Cross, had supplied the camp with 40 metric tons (44 US tons) of food Friday and another 20 tons (22 US tons) Saturday. Over 20,000 loaves of fresh bread were handed out. as well as 47,000 blankets, she said.

Tens of thousands of people milled around or squatted in the rain early Saturday as temperature hovered about 10 degrees above freezing. More than a dozen sick babies were taken out of the camp, while a couple of Red Cross tents were packed with more than two dozen sick people.

Ghedini said local officials were moving to speed up a regis-

tration process that would allow the refugees to be relocated in just constructed accommodation camps or with local relatives.

Kosovo refugees have also been pouring into Albania, where they now number about 120,000.

Meanwhile. Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov discussed the Kosovo crisis with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, once again voicing Moscow's opposition to NATO attacks, the government said today.

Annan had requested the talk with Primakov, which took place by phone late Friday night, a Primakov spokesman

The spokesman provided no other details about the conversation. but it was likely that Primakov and Annan also discussed the possibility of holding an emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Kosovo, which Russia has called for.

Primakov also met with top government officials today to discuss the Kosovo crisis. The .government has agreed to send Yugoslavia 1,600 metric tons of humanitarian aid, which Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry has said will include medicine, food and clothing;

Meanwhile, a Russian reconnaissance ship, on its way to the Mediterranean to spy on NATO forces involved in raids against Yugoslavia, reached Turkey's Bosporus today, the Interfax news agency said.

The Liman, an intelligence-gathering vessel of the Black Sea Fleet, left the fleet's base in southern Ukraine on Friday. Moscow has said it wants to get a better picture of what's going on in Yugoslavia, but has insisted it will not share any intelligence data with Belgrade.