The United Nations has appealed for eighteen million dollars to help the tens of thousands of refugees who have fled the fighting in the Yugoslav province ofKosovo.

The head of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Sadako Ogata said the money was needed to support current relief operations and to prepare for possible new waves of refugees.

She said at least thirteen-thousand people had already crossed into Albania and a further nine-thousand had fled to the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro; an estimated forty-five thousand were displaced within Kosovo itself.