THE United States envoy, Mr Richard Holbrooke, architect of the Dayton peace accord for Bosnia, held four hours of talks with President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia in Belgrade yesterday and described them as "inconclusive".
He said after the meeting with the man widely regarded as the Bosnian Serbs main sponsor during the war that he would return to Belgrade for further talks later in the week.
"I cannot tell you we made any progress today, and I will not characterise the talks except to say they were inconclusive," he told reporters. "Confidential negotiations require confidentiality."
Mr Holbrooke said he would go to the Croatian capital, Zagreb, for talks with President Franjo Tudjman and consult Washington before resuming negotiations in Belgrade this afternoon.
He declined to give any details of their main topic of discussion, the future of the Bosnian Serb leader, Dr Radovan Karadzic, an indicted war criminal.
But he reiterated the Western belief that the Bosnian Serbs were defying the Dayton peace accord.
Mr Holbrooke said earlier it was Mr Milosevic's responsibility to honour his commitments under the Dayton accord to remove Dr Karadzic from power.
Mr Milosevic signed the Dayton documents on behalf of the Bosnian Serbs and the West believes that makes him accountable for their failure to comply with the agreement.
Dayton forbids any individual indicted for war crimes, such as Dr Karadzic, from holding public office or participating in Bosnian elections scheduled for September 14th.
If Mr Milosevic continued to resist the pressure. Nato said, it might still ht prepared to consider snatching Mr Karadzic, an option it had avoided because of the risk of Western casualties.
Mr Holbrooke also said he and Mr Milosevic discussed restoring civilian flights and telephone links between Belgrade and Sarajevo, cut since the start of the conflict in 1992.
The UN said yesterday that assaults on minority Serbs in Sarajevo's suburbs were worsening and the mainly Muslim Bosnian government was doing absolutely nothing" about it.
More than 50,000 Serbs fled the suburbs when they reverted to government rule last winter under the Dayton peace treaty, but 8,000-10,000 stayed on assurances they would not face reprisals for the Serb siege of the capital.
However, Serbs who stayed on in the suburbs were swiftly subjected to violence and intimidation by vengeful incoming Muslims, former neighbours or war refugees from Serb held territory.
UN police monitors protested repeatedly to the Bosnian government but "the problem seems to be getting worse now rather than better", a spokesman said.
Mr Alex Ivanko of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) said Serb farm buildings were being burned down and families threatened with death while nights were plagued with gunfire, especially in the suburbs of Vogosca and Osijek.
The head of the French Gendarmes said yesterday that he did not fear for his officers serving with the UN police force, despite recent Bosnian Serb threats against the multinational force.
Mr Bernard Prevost said in Sarajevo that his men were under orders to be vigilant because their mission is not easy, but there is no question that they should have to worry about their personal safety.