Fighting forces UN to halt Bosnia aid convoys

ZAGREB (Reuter) - The UN last night suspended all aid convoys into central Bosnia as the relief operation reached breaking point. The convoys were stopped for at least 72 hours because of the threat of intensified fighting.

International mediators ended talks with Bosnia's presidency over a Serb-Croat plan to partition the country and suggested there was a glimmer of hope for peace negotiations at some point.

'I think there will be negotiations personally, but when is a more difficult question,' Lord Owen said as he and his fellow envoy Thorvald Stoltenberg emerged from talks with eight presidency members in Zagreb.

The meeting was a last-ditch effort to persuade Bosnia's presidency to consider the plan to carve up Bosnia into three confederated mini-states - the proposal was expected to be rejected. Lord Owen said an alternative plan for a federal Bosnia was in doubt because it had not been backed by all nine members. Hopes that the presidency would open talks on the Serb-Croat plan appeared to have been dashed on Friday when seven members said they would not accept it.

Aid crisis, page 13