U.S. TO BEGIN TRAINING MUSLIM TROOPS TO FIGHT.

Byline: Eric Schmitt The New York Times

U.S. civilian contractors will begin training Bosnian Muslim soldiers in the next 60 days, Clinton administration officials said, as the first step toward ensuring they can defend themselves after NATO peacekeepers leave.

Last week, Bosnian officials in Sarajevo agreed to an administration plan that calls for their government, the Muslim-Croat federation that controls about half of Bosnia, to hire retired American military officers to teach basic soldiering skills and more advanced tactics. U.S. forces would not be involved in the training.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted last month to endorse the Bosnia peacekeeping mission on the condition that the administration lead an international effort to equip and train the Bosnian government's army to the same level of its Bosnian Serb counterpart, which controls the other half of Bosnia and outguns the numerically superior Muslim forces. Sen. Bob Dole, the majority leader, has argued for American military support for the Bosnian Muslims since the question of American involvement in Bosnia was raised several years ago.

But the Balkan peace accord reached in Dayton, Ohio, in November and signed last month imposes a 90-day embargo, ending in mid-March, on the supply of any military equipment to the participants in the Bosnian conflict and a 180-day embargo on supplying heavy weapons.

"In terms of providing heavy weapons, we're more than five months from being able to do that," Defense Secretary William J. Perry said in an interview. "But I would expect the training to start during this three-month period. We have no reason to wait."

Under the plan, Bosnian Muslim troops would be trained in Bosnia and perhaps a NATO country such as Turkey, Pentagon officials said. The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced last month it would sign a defense treaty with Bosnia soon.

Islamic countries would be expected to pay for most of the training and equipment, said Perry, who discussed the proposal with Saudi officials in Riyadh earlier this month. One senior Pentagon official said the training would cost no more than $100 million and the equipment about $400 million, depending on whether the Bosnian army received American-made weapons or Eastern European equipment similar to that used by the former Yugoslav army.

But Western European officials fear that arming the Bosnian Muslims will undermine the impartiality of the NATO peacekeeping troops in Bosnia and their efforts to promote arms control in the Balkans.