SERBS VIOLATING WEAPONS LIMITS, OFFICIALS SAY.

Byline: Raymond Bonner The New York Times

The Bosnian Serbs have far more heavy weapons than they formally declared and have resorted to subterfuge to avoid destroying their excessive stock, said Western officials who have been meeting for the last two days.

The violations of the Balkans arms-reduction agreement were determined by the officials who have been exchanging intelligence information in closed meetings.

The greatest discrepancy is in the number of artillery pieces, the weapons that terrorized Sarajevo and laid villages waste throughout Bosnia, according to U.S. and European intelligence agencies.

The Serbs say they have some 1,350 artillery pieces, but intelligence agencies from five countries put the number at an average of 2,500, said a senior European military officer.

The Serbs are also trying to save more than half their tanks from the scrap heap by claiming 300 of them are intended for export or use in research and development.

``This is dangerous, this is provocative,'' a senior official with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said of the Serbs' conduct. ``It can lead to the whole arms-control agreement falling apart.''

The organization, based in Vienna, oversees the arms-control agreement.

At a meeting to discuss the matter, officials included representatives from Germany, Britain, France, Italy and the United States, as well as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Russia, a member of the group, did not send a representative.

The arms-control agreement, concluded earlier this year, sets limits on the number of tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery pieces, combat jets and helicopters that Yugoslavia, Croatia, the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic can have.

It requires the various governments to destroy stocks that exceed those limits. Exempt from destruction are particular weapons intended for export or for use in research and development programs.

Officials said that all the parties had skirted the edges of full and honest disclosure under the treaty, or, as one NATO official put it, they have been ``economical with the truth.''

The Croatian government, for example, has 500 more artillery pieces than reported, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization military officer said. But U.S. and European officials said that the Bosnian Serb violations were the most egregious.

``Cheating and abusing'' is how an official of the European security organization described the Serbs' actions. While U.S. and European diplomats are alarmed, it is not clear how far they are willing to go to confront the Serbs.

The NATO secretary general, Javier Solano, and John Kornblum, assistant secretary of state, plan to raise the matter with Bosnian Serb leaders within the next week, a NATO official said. But officials acknowledge that talk alone is not likely to persuade the Serbs to make changes.