1 President Clinton has approved a plan to offer Serbia a temporary lifting of economic sanctions if it recognizes Bosnia and other former Yugoslav republics, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.
2 The aim is to make permanent a four-month cease-fire in Bosnia and to prevent the 34-month war there from spilling over into Croatia, the official said.
3 The plan has the approval of Britain, France, Russia and Germany, the four other members of the so-called Contact Group that has sought a peace formula in vain. It will be presented to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in the next few days, the official said.
4 Among the sanctions that would be lifted are restrictions on fuel shipments to Belgrade and trade with the former Yugoslavia, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
5 As part of the deal, Milosevic would have to agree to the posting of more monitors on Serbia's border with Bosnia to check on compliance with a pledge to stop arming Serbs in Bosnia.
6 The official stressed the sanctions would be lifted only temporarily and would be reimposed if the Serbian leader reneged. The plan would not affect Serbia's exclusion from the World Bank and other international groups.
7 In another development, U.S. negotiator Charles Thomas is being replaced by Robert Frasure, another career foreign service officer. Thomas will be assigned fulltime to helping in the federation of Muslims and Croats in Bosnia.
8 Representatives of the Contact Group met in Paris Tuesday, but participants declined to talk to reporters after the meeting.
9 The U.S. official in Washington said he was reluctant to divulge details of the proposal even before they were presented to Milosevic. But he said a 'leak' to The Washington Times newspaper of a memorandum that did not give a complete account prompted his disclosure. The newspaper published some elements of the plan Tuesday.
10 Peace efforts have stalled over the Bosnian Serbs' refusal to consider a five-nation peace plan that would set up ethnic zones in Bosnia with them in control of 49 percent and a Muslim-Croat federation 51 percent.
11 The Serbs, now holding almost 70 percent of the country, have rejected the plan as one that would leave them with fragments of the country that are not politically or economically viable.
12 The official acknowledged, therefore, that the proposal is limited.
13 'If Milosevic goes for this we still have the Bosnian Serbs controlling the land,' he said.
14 But he said the isolation of the Bosnian Serbs would be deepened, and the five countries would stiffen their sanctions against them.

As part of the deal , Milosevic would have to agree to the posting of more monitors on Serbia ' s border with Bosnia to check on compliance with a pledge to stop arming Serbs in Bosnia .
monitors
Who is providing these monitors?