Croats and Serbs Seeking a Lasting Truce : Yugoslavia: Republic presidents and army chief pledge that the conflict must be resolved by political means.

The presidents of Croatia and Serbia met Wednesday with the federal defense minister, apparently in an effort to reach a lasting truce in the conflict that has torn Yugoslavia apart and claimed more than 500 lives.

As a cease-fire lasted into its fourth day, a Serbian television report indicated that Serbia’s hard-line president, Slobodan Milosevic, had joined a meeting with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and the federal army chief, Gen. Veljko Kadijevic.

According to a television report from Serbia’s Novi Sad, the three key figures in the conflict pledged that the crisis “must be solved only by political means, and further clashes and bloodshed must be prevented.”

Croatian sources said that Tudjman began meeting with Kadijevic at an undisclosed location earlier in the day, and there was speculation that the meeting involved discussions about a possible army withdrawal from Croatia.

“Both sides wanted the meeting,” said Gen. Andrija Raseta, an army commander in Zagreb. “We hope that this cease-fire will continue. We hope that there will be no more shooting.”

The cease-fire has taken a more solid hold than any of the four previously invoked, although some violations were reported.

The Croatian town of Vinkovci, scene of shelling and gunfire exchanges for at least two days after the cease-fire took effect on Sunday, fell quiet Wednesday. Zagreb Radio reported no major overnight clashes, although some shelling was reported in the eastern Croatian city of Vukovar and the coastal town of Zadar.

But the Croatian crisis management center in Vinkovci, site of heavy fighting over the weekend, said it has reached an agreement with federal army commanders in the region providing that army personnel would withdraw from the town over the next five days.

Some schools reopened in Zagreb after being shut down for nearly two weeks.

Both Croatian and Serbian sides continued to spar over bargaining positions. There are about 600,000 ethnic Serbs living in Croatia, perhaps half of them in areas in the south of the republic, where some of them say they do not want to live in an independent Croatia. They cite the memory of the independent pro-Nazi puppet state in World War II that killed an estimated 500,000 Serbs in concentration camps.

Milosevic has said that Croatia is free to leave Yugoslavia only if it leaves behind its Serb-populated areas.

But Croatian officials have said they will not give up any territory as a price for leaving the now-fractured Yugoslav federation. Croatia, with its northern neighbor Slovenia, declared independence from the federation July 25.

Croatian Prime Minister Franjo Greguric said Tuesday that his government demands that the federal army halt all military movements and said that the army will have to leave all its weapons and installations in Croatian hands when it pulls out.

Previously, the Croatians had demanded that the federal army return to its barracks in the republic. The toughening of the terms reflects Croatia’s newly acquired confidence, resulting largely from halting what had been billed as a major federal army assault begun last Friday.