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MOSCOW, May 24, 1999 -- (Reuters) Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Sunday urged German leaders to defend the post-World War II international order and said bold new steps were needed to ensure the sovereign rights of peoples.

Yeltsin's urging was contained in a letter congratulating Germany, Russia's biggest creditor and trading partner in the West, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the federal republic.

"We are going through a decisive stage in the international development and European construction," Yeltsin wrote to President Roman Herzog and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

"Dramatic events in the Balkans have proven this once again," he said. "The choice of a way to go will, to a big extent, decide the shape of the world order under which next generations will live."

Russia has denounced NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia, saying the action, undertaken without authorization from the United Nations, could lead to the replacement of a U.N.-centered world order with one military and political bloc.

"We need joint bold steps to finally establish on the planet a system of international relations based on the priority of the United Nations Charter, international law, the principle of equal security for every state, respect for the sovereign rights of peoples, democracy and human rights," Yeltsin wrote.