U.S. Troops Will Go to Macedonia : Balkans: The 300 soldiers will make up the first U.S. ground combat unit in the region. They will join U.N. observers in an effort to deter the spread of ethnic strife.

In a step he called “both symbolic and tangible,” Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced Thursday that the United States will send a reinforced infantry company of 300 troops to Macedonia to join a U.N. observer force intended to prevent the Balkan war from spilling over into another former Yugoslav republic.

Although Macedonia is relatively peaceful and is well away from the Bosnia-Herzegovina war zone, the infantrymen will be the first U.S. ground combat troops sent to any part of the former Yugoslavia. There are already 329 American military personnel in the shattered federation, more than half of them assigned to a military hospital in Zagreb, Croatia.

Christopher’s announcement came as North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers voted to offer air cover to peacekeeping troops anywhere in Bosnia, clearing the way for the U.N. forces to become far more assertive in protecting the civilian victims of the bloody ethnic war.

The foreign ministers also agreed to hold a summit meeting of the heads of government of each of the 16 NATO nations later this year, probably in Europe. Christopher relayed President Clinton’s call for the summit to reorganize the alliance to meet “the challenges of the post-Cold War world.”

In Washington, the Pentagon said the 300 U.S. soldiers could be in Macedonia within a week. The 200 combat troops and 100 support personnel most likely will be drawn from forces stationed in Germany or Italy.

The Americans will join about 700 Scandinavian troops under the “operational control” of Danish Brig. Gen. Siermirk Thomsen. Like other units under U.N. command, they will wear the light blue helmets that signify U.N. troops.

Christopher said the force “will serve a strong deterrent purpose” in Macedonia, primarily because any potential aggressor would have to overrun American soldiers, an act that could bring on U.S. retaliation.

“This conflict must not be allowed to spill over,” Christopher declared in a statement that referred to the ethnic struggle now raging in Bosnia-Herzegovina among Serbs, Croats and Muslims. “We must prevent a wider Balkan war, which would threaten NATO allies and several emerging democracies. It is essential that everyone in the region understand that aggression against the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia would have grave consequences.”

Observers warn that the next flash point in the former Yugoslav federation is the Serbian province of Kosovo, whose mainly Albanian population seeks independence. Kosovo borders Macedonia.

The United States has accepted Macedonia’s independence and the legitimacy of its government but has held off formal diplomatic recognition because of objections from NATO ally Greece. Greece objects to the new country’s use of the name “Macedonia,” which it says is proof of the country’s territorial ambitions on Greece’s northern province of the same name.

The Pentagon declined to rule out the possibility that the United States might send troops to Kosovo, although that is unlikely since Kosovo is part of Serbia.

A senior Pentagon official traveling with Christopher conceded that the U.N. observer force is primarily of symbolic value.

“A thousand is not a lot of guys to stop masses coming over the hill,” he said.

Christopher said the 300 Americans would never be required to face an invasion alone. He predicted that if any attack were imminent, the United States would get ample advance information.

“The United States would not leave its troops in Macedonia undefended, you can be sure of that,” Christopher said.

A senior State Department official said, “We’ll back ‘em up” if they are endangered.

The soldiers will be equipped with mortars, machine guns and rifles and accompanied by small armored vehicles, officials in Washington said. U.S. bases in Europe could quickly send Bradley fighting vehicles and attack helicopters if the situation warranted.

Pentagon spokesman Robert Hall said the Americans would be authorized to fire in self-defense but said authorities here “don’t envision their taking direct action” unless they are attacked.

The NATO ministers, in their annual spring meeting at a beach resort outside of the Greek capital, agreed to share in a U.S. promise to provide air cover to U.N. forces defending six safe areas that the United Nations wants to establish in Bosnia to protect the Muslim population from Serbian “ethnic cleansing.”

At the same time, NATO expanded the commitment to cover U.N. troops, known as UNPROFOR (U.N. Protection Force), whether they are in one of the enclaves or not.

Backed by allied warplanes, the U.N. forces will be able to go on the offensive against the Serbs besieging the enclaves if they choose to do so. Up until now, U.N. troops have avoided combat, but the latest U.N. Security Council resolution authorizes the troops to shoot if necessary to assure delivery of humanitarian supplies and to protect civilians.

“We offer our protective air power in case of attack against UNPROFOR in the performance of its overall mandate,” the NATO ministers said in a communique.

British officials, who had been pressing for an expansion of the air cover plan, were delighted with the agreement. Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said that the U.N. force, assured of protection from the air, now must be expanded with the addition of thousands more soldiers. He said Sweden agreed Thursday to commit 1,000 soldiers.

Christopher said the United States will offer to provide airlift capacity for other countries contributing troops to the augmented U.N. forces. But he reiterated that Washington would not send its own ground combat troops to Bosnia.

Some Europeans have been critical of the Clinton Administration for refusing to commit American combat troops to the U.N. forces in Bosnia. At his press conference, Christopher was challenged by a British reporter who suggested that the United States would send troops to Macedonia only because it is relatively safe.

“Our moral authority is entirely intact,” Christopher said. He pointed out that in addition to the soldiers for Macedonia, the United States has warplanes helping to enforce the “no-fly” zone over Bosnia and transports flying relief supplies to beleaguered cities--and will soon be providing air cover for peacekeeping troops.

“The United States will not be faulted around the world for the courage it has shown--whether you are talking about Somalia or you are talking about Desert Storm, the United States does its part and we’re doing it here,” Christopher said.

U.S. officials said that U.S. military personnel already in the region includes 186 at a field hospital in Zagreb, 12 at UNPROFOR headquarters near Sarajevo, 14 military engineers deployed around the former federation, 26 attached to U.N. refugee programs, 12 assigned to a NATO liaison office and 79 support personnel such as clerks and communicators. Twenty of the troops are in Bosnia.

By taking on the responsibility for defending U.N. forces from the air, the NATO foreign ministers offered a strong endorsement of the U.N. plan to establish safe areas for Bosnian Muslim civilians. Last month, NATO defense ministers considered the safe area plan but were unable to agree on any steps that the alliance would take to promote it.

Although the safe areas measure virtually concedes to the Bosnian Serbs the 70% of the republic’s territory that they now hold, Hurd said the world community must do what it can rather than fret about what it cannot do.

“It is important not to let expectations run ahead of reality in the new world,” the British foreign secretary said. “This is not the ultimate solution, and it can’t be characterized as peace with justice.” But he said it would save lives that otherwise might be lost.

Times staff writer Art Pine, in Washington, contributed to this report.