Bosnia truce hangs in the balance

SARAJEVO (Agencies) - A four-month cessation of hostilities in Bosnia, due to be signed today, hung in the balance last night. The Bosnian government said it would refuse to sign the deal unless Croatian Serb forces pulled out of the Bihac pocket in North-west Bosnia.

Earlier, the Bosnian Serb government announced it was ready to sign the agreement, initially brokered by the former US President Jimmy Carter and re-negotiated in recent days by General Sir Michael Rose, the UN Commander in Bosnia.

The Bosnian vice-president Ejup Ganic warned last night that his government would not sign without a commitment to remove all Serb forces from the besieged Bihac enclave.

Mr Ganic added that his government would also refuse to sign the accord unless UN troops monitored the Bosnia-Croatia frontier near the pocket. The accord is due come into effect tomorrow to replace a one-week Christmas Eve ceasefire agreement brokered by Mr Carter.

1,000-day siege, page 10