Russia Will Send Troops to Bosnia, but Only if U.N. Clarifies Mandate : Balkans: Moscow already has peacekeepers in Croatia. Critics say they have sided with Serbian forces there.

Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev said Friday that his government is ready in principle to send peacekeeping troops to defend safe areas in Bosnia-Herzegovina but will not do so until the U.N. Security Council clarifies the duties of the international force.

“We need a much clearer mandate by the Security Council,” Kozyrev said in an interview with CNN after meeting with Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

On his way into the session with Christopher, Kozyrev had touched off speculation that Russian forces in Bosnia was a done deal when he said, “We will be prepared to send additional peacekeepers.”

He reminded reporters that Russia already has contributed about 800 troops to the U.N. force in the former Yugoslav federation. Most of them are deployed in northern Croatia, where critics complain they have sided with Serbian forces in the complex ethnic war.

Kozyrev and Christopher were in Athens along with foreign ministers and other top officials of the 38-member North Atlantic Cooperation Council, a 2-year-old organization established to coordinate military and political policy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and members of the defunct Warsaw Pact.

NATO officials are urging Russia to join the augmented U.N. force that will soon be deployed to defend six havens that are being established to protect Bosnian Muslim civilians from besieging Serbian militiamen. Because of its historic ties with Serbia, Russia’s provision of troops would send a strong message to the Belgrade regime and its ethnic allies in Bosnia.

NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner told a press conference, “We all would welcome deployment of additional Russian forces.” He said he hoped that the cooperation council meeting Friday “convinced the Russian leadership that they could and should contribute more troops.”

British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd added, “Certainly we would strongly favor the Russians sending a contingent, and they are considering doing that . . . but they haven’t made a decision yet.”

Meanwhile, the NATO-Warsaw Pact council agreed to engage in joint planning, training and possibly maneuvers to prepare troops for participation in peacekeeping operations.

In effect, only a few years after the two alliances trained to fight each other, they are now considering action as allies.

In a speech to the council, Christopher offered a new U.S. military facility in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, “as a forum and training center for NACC activities and other efforts to address the defense and security issues of the post-Cold War era.

“In particular, I would stress the importance of joint planning, training and exercises,” he said. “Our aim should be to develop a joint capability to act together in future peacekeeping operations.”

The council adopted a detailed, 12-page statement that seeks to establish general rules for peacekeeping forces deployed by the United Nations or the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

For instance, it said that military force can be used only if specifically authorized by the Security Council or CSCE.