Christopher Courts Europe’s Support : Diplomacy: Skeptical of Serbian peace promises, secretary of state launches a weeklong tour to line up backing for military action in Bosnia.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, deeply skeptical of Serbian promises, launched a weeklong consultation and persuasion drive Sunday to line up European support for allied military action in Bosnia-Herzegovina in case the Athens peace agreement turns out to be no better than earlier cease-fire pacts.

Recalling that the rebel Bosnian Serbs have broken a number of pledges to stop the bloody ethnic conflict, Christopher said he intends to prepare the way for “other measures which we must consider if the (Athens) agreement does not stick.”

Late Sunday, after a long dinner meeting attended by Christopher, British Prime Minister John Major and other top officials, the U.S. and British governments issued a carefully worded joint statement suggesting that Britain was edging closer to joining Washington in calling for firm steps in the event the peace accords are not kept.

“We are developing a common position with our partners and allies on stronger measures to be taken if the Serbs fail to implement the peace settlement,” the two governments said. “Several options are under consideration, including military steps.”

Earlier, Major spoke on the phone for 50 minutes with President Clinton, agreeing, his aides said, “that it has to be made plain to the Serb leadership and people that they face isolation and hardship if they continue to refuse . . . a just and internationally acceptable settlement or try to acquire or hold territory illegally.”

Nevertheless, U.S. officials conceded that Christopher faces a daunting diplomatic task in his meetings in London, Paris, Moscow, Brussels and Bonn. The Europeans, never comfortable with the prospect of using military force to stop Serbian aggression, seem certain to demand a delay to give the accord time to work.

Christopher met over dinner at Chevening, the British Foreign Ministry’s official 18th-Century manor house in the Kent countryside, with Major, Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd and Defense Minister Malcolm Rifkind.

“Everyone is satisfied that they are making progress,” a U.S. official said, although he added that there was “not complete harmony and agreement on all points.”

Christopher insisted that the United States and its allies must be ready to use force if the Bosnian Serbs do not immediately stop shelling Sarajevo and other cities and end the practice of “ethnic cleansing.”

He said the agreement signed Sunday by Bosnia’s Serbs, Croats and Slavic Muslims was “good news, so far as it goes.” But Christopher added quickly, “I greet it with hope but with a good deal of skepticism.”

Christopher said Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic agreed last August at a peace conference in London to stop offensive actions and return Bosnia to its status before the fighting began.

“I can’t help but be reminded of the signatures on agreements we’ve seen before in London, of the promises we’ve seen before and of all the fighting and horror we’ve seen since those signatures,” Christopher said.

At the same time, a senior American official said the Clinton Administration is reluctant to commit U.S. troops to an international peacekeeping group to enforce the Athens agreement until it becomes clear that the cease-fire is effective.

Washington’s reluctance to get involved in peacekeeping seems certain to damage the already dim prospects that the Athens agreement will hold. The European leaders Christopher will meet this week are expected to urge the United States to support the Athens pact by moving more quickly into peacekeeping while avoiding direct allied military intervention. That seems to be exactly the opposite of the Clinton Administration’s priorities.

The Americans and the Europeans also seem to be at odds over the sort of action they might take if the latest agreement fails.

Before leaving Washington on Saturday, Christopher told a White House press conference that President Clinton approved “military steps” to stop the carnage in Bosnia.

Although Administration officials have refused to specify the military action under consideration, it is generally believed that it will include air strikes on Serbian artillery positions and other military strongpoints along with an exemption for the Muslim-led Bosnian government from a U.N. arms embargo covering all of the former Yugoslav federation.

Christopher was greeted on his arrival in London by a front-page story in the influential Sunday Times newspaper quoting senior British officials as saying that although Major’s government might reluctantly go along with allied air strikes, it was so opposed to lifting the arms embargo that it would cast an unprecedented veto in the Security Council if Washington forced the matter to a vote.

Other European leaders have indicated that they share Britain’s adamant opposition to arming the Muslims.

A senior American official said Sunday that the Administration has no intention of going it alone in Bosnia.

That appeared to be a change from Saturday, when Christopher seemed to indicate in Washington that the United States was prepared to act unilaterally.

“We’re proceeding on our own track,” the secretary said Saturday. “We’re not going to be diverted from that track.”

Times staff writer William Tuohy, in London, contributed to this report.