Italy Would Join Bosnia Action : Diplomacy: Foreign minister says Rome favors easing arms embargo, giving Christopher’s trip upbeat ending.

Italy’s shaky caretaker government gave Secretary of State Warren Christopher an upbeat ending to an often frustrating European trip Friday by promising to share the risks of military action to punish Serbian aggression in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Foreign Minister Beniamino Andreatta said his country agrees with the United States that the world community must act soon to end the civil war “that affects us and causes us all to be outraged.”

“Italy is a neighboring country,” Andreatta said. “But we will not backtrack from assuming our share of the risks” in collective military action.

Unlike most European leaders, Andreatta indicated that Italy is considering favorably President Clinton’s call for easing the U.N.-imposed arms embargo covering all of the shattered Yugoslav federation to permit shipment of weapons to the Bosnian Muslims.

He said the United Nations should consider redressing the military balance in which the Bosnian Serbs enjoy a 10-1 advantage in tanks and artillery.

Although Italy is not a member of the U.N. Security Council, which must authorize almost all possible military steps to increase the pressure on Serbia and its ethnic allies in Bosnia, Christopher seemed cheered by the attitude of Andreatta and Prime Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who met him over lunch at the Villa Madama, a 16th-Century mansion designed by the artist Raphael.

“I am very satisfied about my consultations in Europe,” Christopher said, even though no nation endorsed Clinton’s Bosnia policy in its entirety and some traditional allies, like Britain and France, expressed strong reservations.

Meanwhile, Christopher dispatched Strobe Talbott, his chief strategist on the former Soviet Union, and Lt. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s White House liaison officer, to Russia to talk to President Boris N. Yeltsin about ways to increase the price the Bosnian Serbs must pay for their refusal to agree to a peace settlement.

Christopher said that when he met Yeltsin in Moscow on Wednesday, the Russian president refused even to discuss the specific measures in Clinton’s Bosnia package because he did not want to upset the prospects for ratification by the Bosnian Serb assembly of the peace plan hammered out by international mediators Cyrus R. Vance of the United Nations and Lord Owen of the European Community.

Now that the assembly has rejected the Vance-Owen plan, Christopher said it is time to take up Yeltsin’s promise to begin immediate consultations on “new and tougher measures” against the Bosnian Serbs.

In a joint statement issued after his meeting with Christopher, Yeltsin said he would be ready to consider anything Washington might suggest if the Serbs rejected the Vance-Owen formula.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev said after the assembly vote that the world should wait until after a Bosnian Serb referendum on the Vance-Owen plan scheduled for May 15-16. But such a delay is clearly unacceptable to Washington.

Christopher has said repeatedly that the referendum has no credibility, and a senior official said Thursday night that it would be a mistake to put military planning on hold until the Serbs act.

Clearly, Christopher decided to send Talbott and McCaffrey to Moscow quickly in an effort to hold Yeltsin’s feet to the fire.

After his talks in Rome, Christopher flew back to Washington to report to Clinton. He said he will continue his talks with other European leaders by telephone, although additional face-to-face meetings will also be required, perhaps at the United Nations in New York or possibly by another tour of the Continent.

“I think one thing that was common everyplace where I went was the need to have a concerted effective program to deal with the problem,” Christopher said. “We were in unison on the general concept of finding common ground for approaching this grave problem.”

It was unclear how long the additional consultations will take. Although a senior official said the U.S. government has no intention of waiting until after the Bosnian Serb referendum, it is difficult to see how military action could be planned and carried out before the voting next weekend.

Christopher said Friday that it is all but inconceivable that the United States and its allies would take military action without a specific new endorsement from the U.N. Security Council.