PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Using tanks and aircraft, Serbian government forces launched a strong, coordinated attack Saturday against a string of Kosovo villages apparently controlled by separatist guerrillas, an ethnic Albanian source said.

The attack in western Kosovo came two days after ethnic Albanian civilian leader Ibrahim Rugova announced a negotiating team for talks with the government on the future of the embattled southern Serbian province.

As a precondition for talks, Rugova said Friday that all military operations carried out by the government must stop before negotiations can begin.

Serbian authorities have agreed only to discuss restoring some autonomy in Kosovo and not full secession as demanded by the Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas.

The new Serbian offensive appeared to rule out talks for a settlement of the conflict any time soon.

A statement released by Rugova's party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, said hopes by Western powers that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic would "start to act seriously once again turned out to be futile."

It reiterated calls to the United Nations, NATO, the European Union and the United States to intervene to stop the government attacks.

Assault centers on western Kosovo

The Kosovo Information Center reported that government forces deployed at strategic positions and at 6 a.m. opened fire on the villages of Logja, Rausic, Krusevac, Istinic, Streoc, Papracane and others, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) west of Pristina near the Albanian border.

All were believed to be under the control of the underground Kosovo Liberation Army.

Forty-six tanks, four jets, eight helicopters and troops transported in 20 trucks joined in the attack, the ethnic Albanian source said.

Some fighting also was reported early Saturday further to the south, where five civilians died.

Also in Pristina, the Serbian Media Center reported that early Saturday a group of "extremists" attacked Serbian police forces securing the Decani-Pec road. The road runs close to the area of fighting. They said police forces pushed the rebels into nearby forests in a counterattack.

Some villagers return home

In an offensive started on July 20, the Serbians have ejected KLA guerrillas from most of the towns and villages they had taken in an insurrection launched last February.

Relief agencies have predicted a humanitarian disaster if the estimated 200,000 people, or 10 percent of Kosovo's population, who have been driven from their homes by fighting are not re-settled before the onset of cold weather.

In contrast to western Kosovo, much of the central Drenica region, which was embattled only 10 days ago, is resettling into calm, with villages and fields which had been deserted just days ago coming back to life.

Farmers were back, tending to corn and wheat fields not far above the main road between Glogovac and Srbica even though it is now secured by Serbian military police checkpoints.