Serbs Say They Are Lifting Gorazde Siege : Balkans: Their leader in Bosnia cites pledge at London talks. Fighting continues in Sarajevo.

Bosnian Serbs said Saturday that they are lifting their siege of the devastated city of Gorazde under agreements made at international peace talks.

Fighting continued in the besieged capital of Sarajevo, however, and three U.N. peacekeepers were reported wounded. Outgunned Bosnian government forces have been waging a weeklong offensive to loosen the Serbian noose around the city before the peace agreements are carried out.

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said in a statement to Press Assn., the British national news agency, that 1,000 Serbian troops were withdrawing from Gorazde, 40 miles southeast of Sarajevo. He said more would follow in consultation with the United Nations.

“In accordance with our obligations, undertaken at the London conference, I have ordered the relief of Gorazde,” Karadzic’s statement said. “All units are to stand down, regardless of the continuing offensive against civilians and the military.”

Karadzic’s announcement appeared aimed at countering suggestions that Bosnia’s Serbian leaders lack the will and control over local militias to honor the accord reached in London on Thursday.

Karadzic--perhaps more than other key players in the Bosnian war--has a record of breaking promises. Lifting the siege of Gorazde would be a potent sign of Serbian willingness to abide by the agreements.

Karadzic also agreed in London to lift the siege on several other Bosnian towns. He also pledged to place heavy weapons under U.N. control and relinquish some territory seized during nearly six months of civil war.

But even as Karadzic pledged to pull back from Gorazde, the Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency reported that Serbs in southeastern Bosnia barred the return of thousands of Croatian and Muslim refugees. Among the London accords was a declaration guaranteeing the right of refugees to return.

Gorazde has been besieged by Serbs for five months. U.N. officials who reached the town with a relief convoy earlier this month reported that many people were near starvation.

The town’s population is believed to have swelled from 15,000 people to as many as 100,000 with refugees from neighboring areas.

Convoy officials reported seeing screaming children being operated on for shrapnel wounds without anesthetics, and hundreds of townspeople bursting out in tears upon sighting the aid caravan.

Bosnian Serbs are trying to create their own republic with ties to the Serbian-dominated remnants of Yugoslavia.

At least 8,000 people have died--U.S. Senate investigators put the figure at up to 35,000--in the six months since Serbs in Bosnia rebelled after the majority Muslims and Croats voted for independence from Yugoslavia.

In Sarajevo on Saturday, the three peacekeepers--French soldiers in the 1,600-strong U.N. force in the Bosnian capital--were hurt when a rocket-propelled grenade hit their armored personnel carrier.

* TORN BY WAR: Southland Serbs and Croats react to Bosnia violence. B1