U.S. Rejects U.N. Offensive in Bosnia : Balkans: White House says its sole commitment is to help enforce a negotiated peace. The statement rebuffs U.N. chief, who said troops would be sent if talks fail.

The White House on Monday rejected a suggestion by U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that the United Nations send ground troops to push Serbian forces out of Muslim areas of Bosnia, if diplomatic efforts fail.

In a rebuff to Boutros-Ghali, presidential spokesman George Stephanopoulos said the United States has had “no discussions at all” about any such move and is “not going to get involved” in promoting any offensive military operations in the Balkans.

U.S. participation is considered crucial to any U.N. military operation.

Stephanopoulos reiterated that the only commitment that the Administration has made so far is to help enforce any peace agreement that might emerge from the current negotiations. He insisted that Washington still hopes the talks, which are in recess now, will produce an accord.

The White House response amounted to an embarrassment for Boutros-Ghali, who had told ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley” program on Sunday that the United Nations would send ground troops “if . . . we are not able to obtain their (the Serbs’) withdrawal.”

The secretary general’s suggestion, apparently intended to intensify pressure on the Serbs to accept the U.N.-brokered peace accord, also was dismissed by Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was in Belgrade on Monday after his return from the peace talks in New York.

“The international community does not plan any use of force, since we have force enough,” Karadzic declared in response to Boutros-Ghali’s statement. Instead of sending troops, he said, the allies “should help us find a solution to the crisis.”

The U.S. rejection appeared to doom the secretary general’s proposal, which apparently took Washington by surprise. The Administration has been going to great lengths to bolster the current negotiations, in hopes of avoiding any involvement in offensive military operations.

Even so, European Community envoy Lord Owen declared Monday that if the Serbs declined to sign on to the U.N.-brokered peace accord, he would ask the Security Council to impose the plan on its own and send in heavily armed troops to help put it into effect.

That proposal, too, appeared unlikely to win the Clinton Administration’s support, analysts suggested after Stephanopoulos’ remarks.

Like Boutros-Ghali, the Clinton Administration also has been seeking ways to intensify the pressure on the Serbs to accept the U.N.-brokered agreement but so far has been unable to come up with proposals that do not involve risk to U.S. forces.

Stephanopoulos reported Monday that two teams the Administration sent to persuade Europeans to tighten enforcement of the economic sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro have returned from an initial round of talks with pledges for increased cooperation.

He said that the Europeans have agreed to make some moves to enforce the sanctions but analysts described the changes as relatively modest.

Both the U.N.-imposed economic sanctions and the no-fly zone are part of the international effort to pressure Serbs to relinquish territory they have taken by force in Bosnia-Herzegovina and to stop them from taking more.

When Croatia and then Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from the old Communist-ruled Yugoslavia in 1991 and 1992 respectively, Serbs in those republics rebelled and, often aided by the federal Yugoslav army, captured large portions of Croatia and Bosnia. A U.N.-sponsored cease-fire in Croatia had the effect of freezing their gains in place, but fierce fighting continues in Bosnia even as Serbs there consolidate their hold.

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