Mediators Report Progress in Bosnia Peace Negotiations

International mediators Tuesday cited progress in long-stalled Bosnian peace negotiations after the warring Balkan leaders talked for the first time in more than six months and agreed to meet again today.

Details of the talks remained wrapped in secrecy as all sides appeared determined to keep the peace process going. Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, who had threatened to boycott the meeting because of the continuing assault on Sarajevo, succumbed to a diplomatic blitz and talked for 90 minutes with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his Croatian counterpart, Mate Boban.

U.N. spokesman John Mills called the talks “constructive.”

Meanwhile, Serbian forces besieged a mountain on Sarajevo’s outskirts Tuesday, pressing for control of the western end of the city. French U.N. peacekeepers came under fire for the second day in a row.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, who also attended the talks, want a tripartite ethnic division of Bosnia. Izetbegovic, a Muslim, has rejected their proposal, saying it would lead to annexation by neighboring Serbia and Croatia.

Diplomats said European Community envoy Lord Owen and the United Nations’ Thorvald Stoltenberg have stepped up pressure on Izetbegovic to show “flexibility.”

Tuesday night, even Izetbegovic cited “some progress,” which seemed to indicate that he saw at least a glimmer of hope in the current proposals.