1 President Clinton has approved a proposal to ease trade and other economic sanctions against Serbia in a new effort to end the war in Bosnia, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.
2 In return, President Slobodan Milosevic would have to recognize Bosnia as a sovereign country, a blow to his hopes for a Greater Serbia, and agree to other conditions designed to end the 34-month ethnic conflict.
3 The aim is to drive a wedge between Milosevic and the Serbs in Bosnia who have rejected past peace proposals by isolating them from their patrons and arms suppliers in Belgrade.
4 The main lure for Milosevic would be at least temporary renewal of trade and fuel supplies.
5 The sanctions, imposed by the U.N. Security Council, have devastated Serbia's economy. Under the proposal cleared by Clinton and the governments of Britain, France, Germany and Russia, economic sanctions would be lifted -- or later reimposed -- depending on Milosevic's actions.
6 Milosevic would be required to recognize three other former Yugoslav republics, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia, thereby acknowledging the breakup of what once was Yugoslavia, and permit stricter policing of his border with Bosnia.
7 At the United Nations, a spokesman said Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali 'would welcome mutual recognition between the successor states of the former Yugoslavia and, in those circumstances, the lifting of the sanctions imposed against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.'
8 The spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said Boutros-Ghali favors 'any development which will make it possible for the Security Council to maintain' U.N. protection forces in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
9 Weapons are still getting through to the Serbs in Bosnia despite a pledge by Milosevic to cut them off, said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
10 Under the proposed deal, Milosevic would have to agree to the posting of more monitors on Serbia's border with Bosnia to check on his compliance with a pledge to stop arming Serbs in Bosnia.
11 The official stressed the sanctions would be lifted only temporarily and would be reimposed if the Serbian leader reneged. Unaffected by the plan, he said, would be Serbia's 'illegitimacy' status on the world stage -- its exclusion from the World Bank and other international groups.
12 The plan will be presented to Milosevic in the next few days, the official said.
13 Representatives of the so-called Contact Group -- from the United States, Britain, France, Russia and Germany -- that has sought in vain for a peace formula met in Paris Tuesday, but participants declined to talk to reporters after the meeting.
14 The senior 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 of a memorandum that did not give a complete account prompted his disclosure. The newspaper published some elements of the plan Tuesday.
15 Peace efforts have stalled over the Bosnian Serbs' refusal to consider a five-nation peace plan that would set up ethnic zones with them controlling 49 percent and a Muslim-Croat federation 51 percent.
16 The Serbs, holding nearly 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.
17 The official acknowledged, therefore, that the proposal has its limits.
18 'If Milosevic goes for this we still have the Bosnian Serbs controlling the land,' he said.
19 However, the isolation of the Bosnian Serbs would be deepened and the five countries would stiffen their sanctions against them, he said.
20 In another development, the U.S. negotiator in Bosnia, 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.

The aim is to drive a wedge between Milosevic and the Serbs in Bosnia who have rejected past peace proposals by isolating them from their patrons and arms suppliers in Belgrade .
proposals
How many proposals were made?