NATO TO PURSUE SERB FUGITIVES AS BOSNIA VOTE NEARS.

Byline: Barry Schweid Associated Press 

Serbia's president declined Sunday to guarantee the arrest of two leading war crimes suspects, and NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia will expand patrols to try to catch them, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said.

Preparations for a mid-September election in the former Yugoslav republic will go ahead while Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the political and military leaders of Bosnian Serbs in a 3-1/2-year ethnic war, remain at large, Christopher said.

The decision was taken at meetings with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia.

Tudjman withdrew a threat not to proceed with the elections until Karadzic and Mladic were apprehended. Christopher told reporters the Croatian leader recognized the importance of elections.

Milosevic offered ``letters and certain steps'' for removing Karadzic and Mladic from power. ``I told him that was not enough,'' Christopher said.

Again raising a threat to reimpose economic sanctions on Serbia, he said, ``there is a growing impatience on the part of the international community with the situation that exists.''

Karadzic and Mladic are the most prominent of more than 50 people, most of them Bosnian Serbs, indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. They are suspected of instigating the killings of tens of thousands of Muslim civilians.

To make their release more likely, Christopher said NATO would undertake more active patrols now that many of the troops' peace-enforcing duties in Bosnia are concluded.

If Mladic went skiing, for instance, as he did last summer in Pale, or to Belgrade for a funeral of another indicted suspect, as he did last month, and if the NATO patrol encountered Karadzic, he would be arrested and turned over to The Hague, Christopher said.

Gen. George Joulwan, the NATO commander, concurred when Christopher discussed the situation with him Sunday, Christopher said.

``What we want to see is tangible action,'' Christopher said earlier.

In a windup statement, the three presidents, who signed the Bosnia accords last December in Paris, said, ``the most important next step in the peace process will be to hold free and fair elections.''

They also affirmed all parties to the settlement have an obligation ``to fully cooperate in the investigation of war crimes and prosecution of all persons indicted for war crimes.''

A European group considering whether the former Yugoslav republic is ready to hold democratic elections registered its serious concern about what it called a lack of cooperation by Serbs and human rights abuses.

The two Serbs continue to pull the strings in Bosnia, with Mladic still in charge of the military and Karadzic operating through trusted stand-ins, according to U.S. officials.

``Karadzic should be removed from the country and tried; Mladic should be removed from the country and tried,'' said Nicholas Burns, the State Department spokesman.

Serbia was violating the Dayton accords, which ended the war, by not arranging for their arrest, Burns said.

However, the U.S. official went on, ``our view is that the election should not be held hostage'' to their apprehension.

And Christopher, appearing on the CBS program ``Face The Nation,'' predicted the elections would go forward.

``I just want to assure you that having met with all the key figures, I would say that elections will go forward on schedule,'' he said.

A senior aide said there was ``a very strong possibility'' the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe would set a September date when it meets June 14 in Florence, Italy.

The organization, which is overseeing preparations, said in an internal report that its officials were under pressure from Washington and other European capitals to declare Bosnia ready for elections, according to The New York Times.

It is unrealistic to expect ``pristine, ideal conditions'' so soon after the war, Burns said. ``By setting a date you are likely to encourage better conditions.''

Faced with a hard bargainer in Serbia's President Milosevic, the realistic goal is to ``marginalize'' Karadzic and Mladic, he said.

The Serbian leader told reporters elections were ``the key component to a normal situation in Bosnia.''