can any one help me with the following in Joomla

When i load " <?php mosLoadModules('menu'; ?>
i want to put a background colour on each of the items in the menu and also a mouse
over effect changing from one menu item to another.

example

item 1
item 2
item 3


all of the items above must have a background colour of red with border colour white


when i have a mousover for example on item 1 it will change its background colour to grey,
but item 2 and 3 will still have a background colour of red

can you please tell me what i need to do in the css file
and also in the index.php file

thank you