Serb Leader Hears U.S. Peace Plan as Fighting Continues

U.S. diplomats Thursday brought their campaign to end the war in the former Yugoslav federation to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who was reported to generally favor the new U.S. plan.

But ongoing warfare in the Balkans illustrated the obstacles to the pact.

“Today’s talks were extremely useful, they were very frank and they clarified some issues,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke said after meeting with Milosevic for five hours.

An upbeat-sounding Milosevic added: “We share views on the need for urgency, a greater urgency for finding a solution to the overall crisis in the former Yugoslavia, a solution that would bring about a permanent and just peace.”

Holbrooke and Milosevic were to continue their talks on the plan today.

Full details of the U.S. proposal have not been released. But it reportedly includes several concessions for Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, aid for Bosnia’s government and mutual recognition for the warring Balkan nations: Bosnia, Croatia and the Serb-dominated rump Yugoslavia.

Earlier, Bosnian Serbs, Croatia, and the Bosnian foreign minister spoke positively of the plan.

Fighting persisted Thursday in spite of the diplomacy. In western Bosnia, Croatian troops pushed toward the Serb-held town of Drvar. On the Adriatic coast of Croatia, Serbs and Croats shelled each other near the port of Dubrovnik.