U.N. May Act by Friday on Enforcing Bosnia Flight Ban

The U.N. Security Council is expected to begin serious consideration later this week of a resolution authorizing allied enforcement of the “no-fly zone” over Bosnia-Herzegovina, which Serbian aircraft have violated since the restrictions were imposed in October.

Diplomats said that after an impasse at the start of the holidays, the United States and its allies--principally Britain and France--appear to be moving toward a compromise on key differences and could well be ready for Security Council action by Friday.

The movement follows private, weekend discussions of the no-fly resolution between President Bush and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and French President Francois Mitterrand. On Sunday, Mitterrand called for prompt action on the Bosnian situation.

Diplomatic sources said U.S., European and Russian negotiators most likely will meet today to hammer out compromise language in hopes of sending a proposal to the Security Council for action later this week.

The developments came as talks among the three major factions in the Bosnian war--the Serbs, the Muslims and the Croats--appeared to hit a snag Monday in Geneva, dampening already-dim hopes that the current peace initiative will succeed.

After a weekend of negotiations, leaders of Bosnia’s warring Muslim and Serbian communities rejected a peace plan offered by special envoys Cyrus R. Vance and Lord Owen that would partition Bosnia into 10 autonomous provinces under an ethnically balanced central government. Serbian militants now control about 70% of the republic.

The U.N. no-fly resolution is important because Western officials worry that unless some action is taken soon, Serbia will expand the fighting to Kosovo--a Serbian province inhabited by ethnic Albanians. That, they fear, could spark a regional war.

Besides their differences over some key issues, Western governments had held up action on the enforcement resolution in part because of pleas by Vance, Owen and U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to give diplomatic efforts another chance.

Meanwhile, Yeltsin told President-elect Bill Clinton in a telephone conversation that his government fully supports the U.S. effort to secure a Yugoslav peace. But he apparently gave no hint on whether Moscow would vote for such an enforcement resolution.

Moscow has indicated it most likely would not veto such a measure in the Security Council. But the Russians have been lukewarm about the resolution for fear of angering the Serbs, their traditional allies.

Bush, Mitterrand and British Prime Minister John Major all have warned the Serbs that they are willing to use military force to guarantee the no-fly zone; their governments have differed sharply over key details.

The major points of difference have involved how long a warning period the Security Council should provide before allied planes begin shooting down Serbian violators and whether the West should go beyond firing at aircraft and destroy airstrips as well.

Until recently, both Britain and France have held out for longer warning time and have been reluctant to authorize destruction of airports--for fear the Serbs might retaliate against U.N. troops now in Bosnia. It was unclear what any new compromise might involve. But some diplomats suggested that the allies might agree on a shorter warning period and avoid mention of destroying airstrips, leaving it to military commanders to decide.

They said such language would let Britain and France off the hook, in diplomatic terms, while allowing military authorities to destroy Serbian-controlled airports, if necessary.