BELGRADE (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanian leaders must publicly renounce terrorism and secession before talks with Serbia on the province's future, Serbian Information Minister Radmila Milentijevic said on Monday. Milentijevic said the Belgrade government would study the sanctions proposals by U.S.-led Western powers "very, very carefully" but insisted that Serbs wanted even-handed treatment by the international community. The United States, France, Germany, Britain and Italy imposed financial sanctions on Yugoslavia at a meeting in London on Monday and agreed they would be tightened if Yugoslavia did not seek a solution in Kosovo by March 25. Russia, a traditional Serb ally, refused to join in punishing Belgrade which has been accused of over-reacting to attacks on its security forces by the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Serbian anti-terrorist police killed scores of alleged KLA guerrillas in fierce fighting last week. The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug, in a tougher response than Milentijevic's, accused the Big Powers of usurping the role of the United Nations where sanctions would be subject to a Russian or Chinese veto. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has claimed that the risk of the Kosovo conflict spreading more widely in the southern Balkans over-rode Yugoslav sovereignty. Milentijevic stressed that Serbian authorities had reacted legitimately to "terrorist activities" following a warning to the Albanians by U.S. Balkan envoy Robert Gelbard that the international community would not support either terrorism or independence in Kosovo. "The weight of this problem is put solely on the shoulders of Serbia and (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic, which is wrong because the terrorists, although they are not large in numbers exist and are well organised," she said. Milentijevic claimed the Serbian police action in mountain villages in central Kosovo "was fairly measured" and added: "I would like to know from the world community how they would have dealt with this situation in their own countries? Turkey has its problems with the Kurds, Spain with the Basques and England with Northern Ireland. How do these countries deal with the forces that want to secede?"