TRADES council leaders from Burnley have given their backing to a call for Nato to stop bombing Yugoslavia.

The Lancashire Association of Trade Union Councils has written to all Labour MPs asking them to press the Government for a cessation of action which it describes as "crude, indiscriminate and ill thought out" and which amounts to declaring war on the Serb population as a whole.

While condemning the "brutal" actions of the Yugoslav regime, the letter says non-violent options for dealing with the situation have not been exhausted and calls for the United Nations to be brought in to negotiate the setting up of a protection force in Kosovo.

The trade unionists say the Nato action has not been authorised by the UN and the dangers of a wider war are very great.

It adds: "The situation has now been reached where the Nato bombing is being kept up day after day as a kind of indiscriminate retribution with no indication of when it will end or what will cause it to end."

Association secretary Peter Billington said there was great strength of feeling among delegates.

Burnley Trades Council also gave full support for the move at their last meeting.

Council spokesman Tom Fallows of the GMB Union said: "There is a strong feeling that the bombing has had an adverse effect on the situation and strengthened Milosevic's hand considerably.

"If things had been done differently, there would not have been such an immense number of refugees and they would have had something for them in Kosovo, not just desolation."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.