CANNES : EU Huddles on Bosnia

Leaders of the 15 European Union member states will gather at this Mediterranean resort Sunday for a two-day session on the next diplomatic steps in the Bosnia crisis and proposals that would ease the eventual integration of Central and East European states into the union.

The summit, which will be chaired by recently elected French President Jacques Chirac, is also expected to deal with the sensitive political problem of allocating more than $10 billion in the EU’s proposed five-year foreign assistance package. Northern member states such as Germany want to make sure a majority of the funds go to the formerly Communist Central European countries to prepare them for possible EU membership, while southern countries, including France, Italy and Spain, want more aid to go to stabilize the economies of their Mediterranean neighbors.