-Caveat Lector- Security Council Shocked by Blast By NICOLE WINFIELD .c The Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The Security Council today expressed shock and concern over the damage and casualties caused by a NATO missile strike on China's embassy in Belgrade. China, Russia, Yugoslavia and their allies condemned the incident as a ``barbaric'' attack that violated international law and the Geneva Conventions protecting diplomats. China called an emergency late night meeting that continued until the early morning. While apologizing for the loss of life, the United States and its NATO allies countered that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic bore the blame for any casualties from the NATO raids because he had refused to comply with international demands for a peaceful settlement in Kosovo. China's state-run news agency Xinhua said three people were killed. The sparring came during nearly five hours of tough closed-door negotiations and sometimes acrimonious public debate. The session indicated that the incident was certain to complicate efforts to reach a peace agreement in Yugoslavia. China is a permanent member of the Security Council, where the United States and Russia are seeking approval of a Kosovo peace plan. NATO spokesman Jamie Shea admitted the alliance had hit the wrong building. ``We explained to the Chinese authorities this is an accident. We offered our sincere regrets,'' Shea told a morning briefing at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. NATO bombs were targeting a weapons warehouse that coordinates Yugoslavia's weapons imports and exports, close to the Chinese Embassy during the heaviest night of bombing in Belgrade. Shea could not explain how the embassy was mistaken for the Yugoslav government building. Chinese Ambassador Qin Huasun said NATO should be punished for the ``indiscriminate attack,'' and should also stop its air campaign immediately and unconditionally. Yugoslavia's U.N. representative, Vladislav Jovanovic, said the bombing was not an accident. ``This is one accepted crime by those who have decided to stage a total war against Yugoslavia, against a part of Europe, against Europe as a whole,'' Jovanovic said. ``NATO would never target civilians and NATO would never target an embassy,'' Deputy U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh told the council. Burleigh urged council members to ``look at the big picture, and the big picture is this: One man alone is responsible for this crisis ... and his name is Slobodan Milosevic.'' An exasperated Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov rejected his claim, saying the ``big picture'' was that NATO was exploiting a humanitarian crisis in Yugoslavia to ``destroy the present world order,'' which is based on international law and the charter of the United Nations. Arriving in Germany on a trip aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict, Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin sharply criticized the embassy bombing. Chernomyrdin was expected to go to Belgrade to follow up on a proposed peace plan worked out by the Western powers and Russia. Diplomats are hoping Russia, now taking a stance closer to the West, would be able to exert pressure on Yugoslavia to accept a peace deal. China called the emergency meeting, hoping to condemn what it called a ``barbaric'' NATO missile attack on its embassy as a ``serious violation of international law.'' Instead, a consensus statement reached after nearly three hours of closed-door negotiations expressed the council's ``shock and concern'' over casualties and damage. The statement, which carries no legal weight and is merely a reflection of the council's thinking, expressed the council's sympathy and condolences to the Chinese government and the families of the victims. U.S. officials said they were pleased with the final statement. But they then had to sit through an open council debate in which not only Yugoslavia's allies in the Kosovo conflict but Iraq and Cuba, too, condemned Washington. Iraqi Ambassador Saeed Hasan said the attack on the embassy was similar to the ``aggression'' Iraq was suffering at the hands of Washington -- a ``pattern of the American behavior which flouts international law and the rights of nations and peoples.'' Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said it was ``deplorable'' that the embassy was hit. He said Japan would work to find peace in the Balkans as soon as possible. Vietnam, a longtime rival of China with which it fought a bloody border war in 1979, said the embassy attack was a ``serious violation of international law.'' The Southeast Asian nation called for an ``immediate stop'' to the bombing campaign and a ``settlement of the issue through negotiations.'' 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