Western Powers Grope for Strategy to Protect Enclaves : Diplomacy: Meeting of allied military leaders ends without statement. France pushes plan to open road to Sarajevo, save Gorazde.

As the Muslim enclave of Zepa faced a Bosnian Serb assault, military chiefs from the United States, Britain and France huddled here Sunday night in an attempt to devise a united policy for protecting the remaining Bosnian “safe areas.”

Any tangible results were unclear: After the evening meeting at the Defense Ministry in central London, the military leaders--Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, British Field Marshal Peter Inge and French Adm. Jacques Lanxade--left without comment.

A British Defense Ministry statement said only, “They discussed the situation in Bosnia and will now report to their respective governments.”

At the meeting, Lanxade reportedly presented to his allied counterparts “precise proposals to reinforce, through limited military action, the security zones.”

The French reportedly hoped that the military chiefs would agree on a plan to reinforce the eastern enclave of Gorazde, where 300 British and Ukrainian peacekeepers assist about 60,000 residents. The government army there is better equipped than at Zepa or the fallen Srebrenica, and a weapons factory is up and running, according to U.N. sources.

The French are also pushing a plan to open a route through Bosnian Serb territory to the capital, Sarajevo.

French President Jacques Chirac recently declared that French troops would be available to defend the safe areas of eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina.

But British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind questioned Chirac’s proposals, indicating that they did not provide specific plans to accomplish the military mission.

And the United States has maintained that it will not provide ground troops as part of the peacekeeping mission but might offer aircraft or transport in support of the British and French forces.

In Washington, Secretary of State Warren Christopher reiterated the Clinton Administration’s stance on ground troops Sunday.

“Right now we have to operate within the context that President Clinton has decided--and I think the American people want to keep it this way--that we will not inject American troops in Bosnia except the possibility of having to use them to withdraw the allied forces,” Christopher said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”

“[But] American equipment is certainly a possibility.”

Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Administration is considering sending up to 200 combat helicopters to improve U.N. troops’ ability to protect the embattled safe areas.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), appearing on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” charged that sending in U.S. helicopters is “the next step to ground troops.” And he said he only “begrudgingly” supported the possibility of dispatching 25,000 American troops to help the United Nations withdraw, if it comes to that--and only under “robust” rules of engagement that would allow U.S. forces to take whatever steps necessary to protect themselves.

In an interview Sunday, Rifkind said Britain would be “very willing” to consider any realistic military proposals to tackle the crisis.

“We need political leadership, but also we need to take account of professional military judgment,” he said. “It is the combination of the two which we are working on.”

Former British Defense Minister John Nott on Sunday accused British Prime Minister John Major of “gross incompetence” in his handling of the crisis.

He criticized the British government for mounting an air mobile brigade for duty in Bosnia but not getting it into place. Although the air brigade has begun to arrive, it will not be operational until mid- to late August, U.N. officials say.

“We must be able to lift the arms embargo [against the Bosnian government] because, in the end, this question will not be settled by diplomacy,” Nott said.

In what is becoming a war of words in Washington, a bipartisan faction within Congress is escalating its campaign to lift the arms embargo and block any further U.S. involvement.

The Bosnian Muslims “are willing to die for their country, and they have a right to do that. And long range, lifting the arms embargo would give them a chance to defend themselves and save their country,” Dole said Sunday.

Dole is pressing for a vote this week, possibly as early as Tuesday, that would mandate that the Administration lift the embargo. He said he has the votes to override a possible veto by the President.

Rifkind was asked whether lifting the arms embargo would be discussed at a London meeting of the five-nation Contact Group--the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Russia--on Friday. The meeting was called by Major to discuss Bosnian peacekeeping forces.

“I don’t think it will,” he said. “We have always recognized that you cannot have both the lifting of the embargo and the continuation of the U.N. military presence in Bosnia.

“It’s for the Bosnian government itself to consider what its priorities are. When last year it was faced with the prospect of the U.N. withdrawing if the arms embargo was raised, the Bosnian government’s conclusion was it wanted the arms embargo to stay.

“It is up to the Bosnian government whether they wish to see the U.N. continue,” he said.

Times staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.