In Belgium, Dole Praises Europe’s Bosnia Efforts : Diplomacy: Republican leader attempts to blunt the impact of earlier remarks critical of allies.

Attempting to ease deepening tensions between the United States and its European allies over how to resolve the crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sen. Bob Dole on Tuesday praised the courage of French and British forces serving in the region as U.N. peacekeepers and said he understood the difficulties of their job.

The Kansas Republican, who will become the Senate majority leader in January, also expressed strong support for the 16-nation Atlantic Alliance that has bound the United States and Canada with 14 European countries for nearly half a century.

“I know we’ve got a big corner to turn (in Bosnia) . . . but I’m a strong supporter of NATO and continue to be a strong supporter,” Dole told reporters here after a day of meetings at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters.

“We’ve made an investment in NATO, and it’s paid off for Americans, we believe,” he said at another point.

In both tone and content, Dole’s remarks stood in sharp contrast to those he made Sunday on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” in which he blamed French and British faintheartedness for the fiasco in Bosnia and for creating conditions “where NATO has been tied in knots” and has “almost become irrelevant.”

An angry response by British Defense Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, who denounced Dole’s comments as “disgraceful,” seemed to drag the transatlantic rift over Bosnia to dangerously new lows.

Dole’s trip here was planned in advance of his controversial weekend remarks. He met privately with new alliance Secretary General Willy Claes and with NATO’s national representatives. Later in the day, he also saw Russia’s former deputy foreign minister, Vitaly S. Churkin, who is now ambassador in Brussels.

Today, he is scheduled to meet British Prime Minister John Major in London.

U.S.-European tensions over Bosnia built quietly for several months on the issue of how much military force should be used in the search for peace.

The United States, which sees the Bosnian Serbs as the war’s clear aggressors, has urged greater use of NATO air power as a way to pressure them into a settlement.

The Europeans, who supply the majority of the 24,000 U.N. peacekeepers in the country, have urged caution for fear that such tactics would put their troops at risk. The United States has no ground forces in the country.

Differences between the allies came to a boil in recent weeks as the international community watched the world’s most powerful military alliance do virtually nothing to stop a ragtag army of Bosnian Serbs as it flouted U.N.-designated safe areas and prepared to capture the strategic city of Bihac.

Although using softer language, Dole on Tuesday still stressed the need for military pressure against Serbian forces.

“If you listed on a blackboard all of NATO’s military actions, it wouldn’t be a very long list,” he said. “What we have had is irrelevant to the Bosnia conflict. We’ve had pinpricks. We haven’t had robust air strikes.

“Until there is some pressure, until there’s some leverage (against the Bosnian Serbs), it’s going to be very difficult to stop the fighting and reach some settlement,” he said. “We understand the problems some of our allies and friends have--the British and French and others who are directly on the ground--but I don’t see any resolution possible otherwise.”

THE BLAME GAME

As the situation in the Bihac enclave of Bosnia-Herzegovina worsened steadily this week, leaders on both sides of the Atlantic and at the United Nations have let fly with recriminations about the international community’s powerlessness. Some samples:

“Now I think we have a complete breakdown of NATO; we have the UN vetoing targets, driven by the British and the French--I must say, primarily the British. The United Nations protection forces are supposed to be there to protect the civilians, and they’re not doing it.”

Senate Majority leader-designate Bob Dole (R.-Kan.).

“I think when we have thousands of brave British soldiers, some of whom have lost their lives, in Bosnia ... it ill becomes people in countries who have not provided a single soldier on the ground to make that kind of criticism.”

British Defense Minister Malcolm Rifkind.

“The tragic events in Bihac show that any encouragement given to the reconquest of territory by force--and notably the prospect of lifting the arms embargo--is vain and dangerous. It only fuels the cycle of violence to the detriment of the search for a negotiated peace settlement.”

French President Francois Mitterrand and Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.

“I told President Clinton in June that it is unwise to lift the embargo (on arms to Bosnia) at this time. It will not create peace there, it will just accelerate war. And this (U.S.) indication that the embargo might be lifted has just created that situation. The war started again.”

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

“I believe the U.N. is being made a scapegoat. It is absolutely unfair when member states do not want to take the risks, when they do not want to commit the resources, but blame the U.N. for failure to act.”

U.N. Undersecretary for Peace-keeping Kofi Annan.