can a target be stored as a lead?

[LizBravo]

Hello.  I am relatively new to Salesforce, and looking for some input on differentiating between leads and accounts.  My organization has a relatively long list of target prospective customers, and there is a general feeling that target contacts who are still being developed by our inside sales team should be stored as much as possible within the leads area of salesforce in order to minimize 'noise' within the accounts page.  fine.

BUT, i have a requirement to report on activity against the entire target list, some of which may be in the opportunity (i.e. account) stage, while others are in the early inside sales stages.  is there a way to have a consolidated report that looks at activity across both accounts and leads.  for the purposes of this report, i only care about companies, not individuals.

so, my worry is that this is not possible and that i should really be creating an account for each of my targets.  any thoughts from those who've been through this?