Balkan Leaders OK Cease-Fire : Bosnia: Warring parties to start a 60-day truce on Tuesday. U.S. will host peace talks beginning Oct. 25. Clinton warns that ‘deep divisions’ remain.

President Clinton announced Thursday that the parties in the Bosnian civil war had agreed to a cease-fire and would meet in the United States in three weeks to seek a permanent armistice--moves he hailed as a “solid step on the hard but hopeful road to peace.”

Clinton said the three rival groups had agreed to begin a 60-day cease-fire on Tuesday and, in a further broadening of the U.S. peacemaking role, will begin talks in the United States on Oct. 25.

Cease-fires have often collapsed during the Balkan republic’s 42-month war, and Clinton struck a note of caution, citing a need to be “cleareyed” and noting that “deep divisions” remain between the parties. Yet his willingness to bring the talks to U.S. shores--thereby increasing the political risk he would face from failure--signaled the President’s rising hopes for the effort.

“This is an important moment in the painful history of the Balkans, for the parties have agreed to put down their arms and roll up their sleeves and work for peace,” Clinton said in a morning appearance in the White House briefing room.

In Sarajevo, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic said he believes that odds are better than ever for a peaceful settlement, even though they are not overwhelming. “I believe the chance for this agreement is about 50-50,” he told reporters.

American and European diplomats will act as intermediaries in the negotiations in the United States, which are to be followed by face-to-face discussions between the parties in Paris.

The moves toward peace have grown from a string of recent developments, including military setbacks suffered by the Bosnian Serbs and the Clinton Administration’s decision to step up its military and diplomatic efforts in the region. Amid an intensified diplomatic effort, the three warring parties agreed Sept. 26 on a new governing structure for the former Yugoslav republic.

The Administration has come under increasing pressure in recent days from members of Congress opposed to the anticipated deployment of U.S. troops to police a peace agreement. In bringing the peace talks to U.S. soil, the White House is hoping that the real prospect of an end to Europe’s bloodiest war in half a century could quickly defuse that opposition--and hand Clinton a foreign policy victory on the eve of his reelection campaign.

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The cease-fire agreement bars all offensive military operations, sniper fire and laying of land mines. It is contingent on the Bosnian Serbs’ restoration of gas and electric service to Sarajevo, the besieged Bosnian capital, and their providing free passage between Sarajevo and the Muslim-controlled eastern “safe area” of Gorazde.

Officials said the cease-fire was delayed for five days to notify front-line military units and give the Serbs time to restore the services to Sarajevo.

But the lag may also be designed to give opposing armies time to finish current offensives raging in northwest Bosnia-Herzegovina.

On Thursday, international monitors reported that more than 100 Croatian soldiers crossed into Bosnia’s Bihac pocket to provide artillery support for Bosnian government forces fighting to repel a Serbian drive.

There have been previous agreements by the Serbs to restore utilities to Sarajevo, and none has been honored for long. And U.N. officials said Thursday night that safeguarding the road to Gorazde, as envisioned in the cease-fire plan, would be difficult.

The parties have already agreed to a division of the state that would give the Muslim-Croat federation 51% of the territory and the Bosnian Serbs the remainder. The U.S. talks, which will take place at a secluded, still-unchosen location, will aim to establish new boundaries and governing arrangements for Bosnia.

The negotiations are to be conducted by the heads of state of Croatia, Bosnia and the Serbia-led rump Yugoslavia. Serbia’s president, Slobodan Milosevic, will represent the Bosnian Serbs, as he has in other recent sessions. Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and military chief Ratko Mladic, both accused of war crimes, would risk arrest if they entered the country.

The intermediaries will be Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, the United States’ chief Balkan negotiator; Carl Bildt, chief negotiator for the European Union, and Igor Ivanov, deputy Russian foreign minister.

Officials said they expect the parties to extend the cease-fire if their talks have not been wrapped up in 60 days.

U.N. troops are to monitor the cease-fire, officials said. NATO defense ministers, meeting in Williamsburg, Va., to discuss the deployment, agreed Thursday to speed up their planning.

U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Perry said that, depending on the terms of an agreement, the United States probably would dispatch between 15,000 and 20,000 troops--the equivalent of a heavily armed division with a full range of combat support units. Clinton had earlier pledged to send up to 25,000 troops.

Although authorities have not yet agreed on the size of the overall force, it is expected to total more than 55,000 ground troops, including combat support units. In addition, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will deploy warplanes and naval vessels to provide military support for the ground forces.

Defense officials announced that Perry will fly to Geneva for a meeting Sunday with Russian Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev to discuss what role Russian troops might play in the overall peacekeeping operation--one of the major unresolved issues in the current talks.

Although Russia has said it will not send troops under NATO command, Perry hinted that the West might be willing to offer a compromise under which Russian troops either served under a separate but parallel command structure or coordinated with NATO through civilian channels.

U.S. officials said the allies want to avoid the mistake of falling prey to “mission creep”--as U.S. forces did in Somalia--by reserving NATO troops solely for keeping the peace and not using them for refugee aid, disarmament, economic rehabilitation or training.

At a press conference in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, Holbrooke said that NATO would continue to patrol the skies over Bosnia but that the United Nations, widely criticized for its ineffective effort to keep peace in the Balkans, would be in charge of carrying out the cease-fire.

Holbrooke, whose intense diplomatic drive brought about the agreement, said restoration of electricity and gas to Sarajevo and the opening of a road into Gorazde were points hard fought to the last minute. He said he and members of his team held a telephone line open between Sarajevo and Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital, where he was meeting with Milosevic, for three hours Wednesday night and early Thursday to hammer out details.

“This is not peace, but this is undeniably a big step forward,” Holbrooke said.

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In New York, the United Nations announced that it will cut its peacekeeping force in Bosnia by 9,000 troops as a result of “the military situation in Bosnia stabilizing and the political process gaining momentum.” The total U.N. force would number 21,000 after the reductions.

In Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Andre Ouellet announced the withdrawal of an 820-member battalion in a deployment that has become increasingly unpopular.

Richter reported from Washington and Wilkinson from Zagreb, Croatia. Times staff writers Norman Kempster in Washington, Stanley Meisler in New York, Art Pine in Williamsburg, Va., and Craig Turner in Toronto contributed to this report.