U.S. Closer to U.N. Accord on Bosnia : Balkans: British and French objections overcome, Bush advisers say. Final wording likely today. It is expected to authorize ‘all means necessary’ to deliver aid.

President Bush’s foreign policy advisers said Sunday that they are close to reaching agreement with other U.N. Security Council members on a resolution to authorize the use of “all necessary means”--including military force--to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Brent Scowcroft, Bush’s national security adviser, predicted that the wording of such a resolution will be finalized by today, overcoming earlier objections raised by the French and the British as well as by U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

While the resolution is not expected to specify what means will be used to assure that food and medical supplies reach the Bosnians, both Scowcroft and Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger indicated that the United States favors using air power, not ground troops.

“The United States’ role in the application of force can, I think, best be applied with high-technology equipment, and that would be primarily air power,” Scowcroft said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley.”

Asked if U.S. air strikes would be limited to Serbian positions in Bosnia or carried out against Serbia itself, Scowcroft replied, “I wouldn’t want to define any particular limit for it.”

Bush Administration officials have been especially reluctant to commit ground forces to facilitate the relief efforts in Bosnia on the assumption that it would lead to a disastrous situation similar to the U.S. peacekeeping mission in Beirut in 1983 that led to the deaths of 241 American servicemen.

Eagleburger, appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said that as long as the airport in Sarajevo remains open to relief shipments, there will be no need for the United States and its allies to employ any kind of force to carry out the U.N. resolution.

He also emphasized that the United States is not seeking U.N. approval to intervene militarily on the side of the Bosnians against the Serbs, as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has suggested. “What we’re talking about is the provision of humanitarian assistance,” Eagleburger said. “We are not talking about going beyond that.”

Thatcher, interviewed on ABC, has been outspoken in suggesting that the Western allies should help to arm the Bosnians as well as intervene on their behalf. She said Sunday that she hopes the U.N. resolution would go further than the one proposed by Bush.

“I hope that it includes not only a means of getting humanitarian aid through; we need more than that,” she said. “I think ordinary people have the right instinct about this. They are horrified at the appalling scenes we’ve seen on television. They think, ‘Supposing this were my family crying out to be free, and those whom we expect to help us withheld that help and left us to our fate?’ ”

Democrats also have been critical of the President’s reluctance to assist the Bosnians. On Sunday, Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton said that consideration should be given to lifting the U.N. arms embargo on Bosnia and Croatia. “I’m not calling for lifting it now, but I do think it’s an issue that has to be debated,” he said.

In comments made as he left Little Rock, Ark., for New York City, Clinton reiterated that U.S. air power should be used only to ensure the safety of U.N. relief workers and, possibly, to force the Serbs to allow inspection of their prison camps in light of allegations that they are torturing and killing ethnic rivals.

“I want to be very clear,” he said, “the comments I have made about the use of force to date are confined to the two issues which the United States government is confronting today, which is opening those camps and protecting the relief effort.”

Clinton took issue with Bush’s contention that the White House has been the victim of “political sniping” over the Balkan crisis.

“He couldn’t possibly be talking about me because all I tried to do is take responsible positions,” he said.

Elsewhere, Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), appearing on CBS, said that Bush should have shown more leadership in responding to the Serbian atrocities in Bosnia. In addition, he criticized the President for failing to push negotiations to resolve the conflict, which Administration officials have described as intractable.

Under questioning, Scowcroft acknowledged that Bush’s current preference for using air power to support the humanitarian effort does not differ substantially from a suggestion made several weeks ago by Clinton.

Staff writer Sam Fulwood III contributed to this story.

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