The tide of war is turning in Croatia's favour - as are its prospects in the EU. Tony Barber reports

The rebel Krajina Serb leadership began pulling its troops across the Croatian border and out of the Bosnian enclave of Bihac yesterday, and promised to end its offensive in support of the secessionist Bosnian Serb army besieging the pocket.

SIX ARMIES HAVE an interest in the green hills, the railway junction, the roads and the 180,000 people of Bihac - seven, if you count the Nato forces and believe in the desire of the West to prevent the fall of another Bosnian enclave to the rebel Serb forces.

The Bosnian government yesterday accused the international community of abandoning yet another United Nations "safe area" as fears grew for the beleaguered northern enclave of Bihac.

BOSNIAN CRISIS: BATTLES

The British hostages released by the Bosnian Serbs sounded relaxed and cheerful as they telephoned their families yesterday and obeyed orders by talking about domestic trivia rather than international crisis. They were also reunited with two soldiers who had remained in hospital in Zagreb after they were released.

DIPLOMACY

The French Foreign Minister, Alain Jupp, who is expected to be the country's next prime minister, yesterday served notice that France would not keep its 4,800 troops in Bosnia without political progress towards a settlement.

Croat victory/ Belgrade the key

Croat victory/ Belgrade the key

Sir: As British Serbs, we note with dismay that official invitations to attend the VE Day commemorations in London have been extended to Zagreb and Sarajevo but not to Belgrade. This would have puzzled Winston Churchill who said, upon hearing of the Serb-led Belgrade coup of 27 March 1941 which toppled an Axis accommodating government, that Yugoslavia had "found her soul". At the time, the UK stood alone against Nazi Germany.

FROM EMMA DALY

WAR IN CROATIA: Briton wounded as policeman killed in capital n Contact Group to meet in London n Knin feels abandoned

Five people died and more than 100 were wounded yesterday when the centre of Zagreb was hit by five or six rockets carrying cluster bombs. The attacks damaged houses, a tram and burned dozens of cars. Bloodstains mixed with glass shards from broken windows, and the covered bodies of the dead lay on a street near Zagreb's twin-spired cathedral.