U.S. Envoy Sent to Urge Bosnia to Expel Foreign Muslim Fighters : Balkans: Some fear moujahedeen might target U.S. troops. Negotiator also wants government to reassure Sarajevo Serbs.

The Clinton administration dispatched peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke to Bosnia on Thursday to pressure the Muslim-led government into ousting foreign Islamic fighters and reassuring fearful Serbs in Sarajevo.

The double assignment reflected two main White House concerns a week before President Clinton flies to Paris to witness the signing of the peace agreement ending the 3 1/2-year-old Bosnian civil war. Both matters, if not resolved, could pose dangers to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization force of 60,000 troops, including 20,000 Americans, that will enforce the agreement.

The problem of the moujahedeen--fundamentalist Muslim warriors from Iran, Afghanistan and other countries--has upset many members of Congress. They want reassurance that the Bosnian government will fulfill the peace agreement’s stricture that all foreign troops leave Bosnia-Herzegovina within 30 days of the Paris signing.

Many Islamic fundamentalists regard the United States as their enemy because of Washington’s support of Israel.

The problem of the Sarajevo Serbs stems from the decision at the peace negotiations that concluded last month in Dayton, Ohio, to keep the capital under the control of the Bosnian government. This has provoked bitter protests from the 70,000 Serbs who live in suburbs that were controlled by the Bosnian Serbs during the war. And it has made NATO commanders worry about the possibility of having to put down civil strife.

Discussing the moujahedeen, a State Department official said, Holbrooke will issue a bottom line demand: The foreign Muslim fighters must leave. “We don’t want them to melt into the society,” he said.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said that Holbrooke, an assistant secretary of state who was the chief American negotiator at the peace talks, will “first and foremost . . . be talking to the Bosnian government about the absolutely critical need to say goodbye to the moujahedeen fighters.”

Burns said, however, that the department has no realistic estimate of the numbers of such warriors in Bosnia.

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Although it was obvious the administration feared the Bosnian government would not take the demand for a moujahedeen withdrawal seriously, Burns insisted that the State Department is confident that the government will abide by the agreement initialed in Dayton.

Bosnian government officials “have assured us that this will take place,” Burns said. “They’ve told us many times that these moujahedeen fighters will be leaving. It’s very important to us because most of the reports we have . . . place these people in the American sector. We believe that they do represent possibly in the future a threat to the American and other forces there, and we want that threat removed.”

As an example of the problem of the Sarajevo Serbs, Burns noted news reports of a demonstration in the Sarajevo neighborhood of Grbavica earlier in the day in which Serbs stomped on an American flag and vowed never to live under the rule of the Bosnian government. Outbursts such as these have troubled French officials, whose troops will be enforcing the agreement in Sarajevo.

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Burns said that Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and other officials had made statements urging Serbs to remain in Sarajevo and promising that their civil liberties will be guaranteed. But Burns made it clear that this had fallen short of what was needed.

“We’d like to see more statements that will assure the Serbs that their rights will, in fact, be protected,” he said.

“We think the situation is sensitive enough and difficult enough--and the history is difficult enough--that the Bosnian government ought to continue to talk about this publicly, continue to give the assurances that it should and find practical ways to deal with all of the issues that flow from this,” Burns said.

The State Department said Holbrooke also will confer with leaders in the capitals of Croatia and Serbia during his visit.