Plan is hatched to halt Serbs
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Your support makes all the difference.JOHN MAJOR and President Bush were last night drawing up a joint policy designed to enforce a no-fly zone over Bosnia. The moves coincided with a growing view among some Western diplomats and military experts that even limited support for Bosnian government forces could tilt the balance against the Serbs.
After several hours of talks at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, Mr Major and Mr Bush were close to reconciling Washington's determination to act against Serbian forces with Britain's concern for the need to protect UN relief efforts.
Mr Major had made clear to Mr Bush that he did not want to jepoardise British and other UN troops protecting aid convoys. But he was under growing pressure to agree to step up military action, possibly by the use of air patrols to enforce the no-fly zone.
Last Friday, Britain and the rest of the EC countries abstained in a UN vote on a US-supported resolution to use all 'necessary means' to restore Bosnia's territorial integrity and lift the arms embargo preventing the Bosnians defending themselves.
Agreement on the limited use of force is expected to be announced when Mr Major returns to Washington today, though officials said that the remaining differences were about tactics.
'I think there is agreement on the need for a political settlement that does not disturb the humanitarian assistance that is so necessary for many hundreds of thousands of people in Yugoslavia,' Mr Major said.
The British had wanted any enforcement of the no-fly zone to be progressive, probably starting with a warning to Serbs that helicopter flights are a breach of the existing resolution. British defence ministers have been arguing that, because Serbs are no longer making bombardment flights, precipitate action against helicopter movements would endanger British troops without helping to contain the Serbian war effort.
Further reports, page 10
Leading article, page 20
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