The US envoy, Mr Richard Holbrooke, ended a row between Bosnia's squabbling leaders over ambassadorial posts yesterday, then promptly headed to Belgrade to lean on the Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, to fulfil his part of the Dayton accord.
The dispute, which lasted several weeks, had triggered an international freeze on Bosnia's ambassadors.
Under the deal, the Bosnian ambassador to the United Nations will be a Muslim; a Serb will be ambassador to Washington; and a Croat will be ambassador to Japan, Mr Holbrooke and other mediators said.
Members of the multi-ethnic collective presidency also agreed on the composition of a joint military commission and on a single area code for Bosnia's telephone network.
"These agreements are full evidence of western determination [to enforce the peace agreement]," Mr Holbrooke said. "These are steps forward and pretty solid ones."
Diplomats said Mr Holbrooke would now threaten Mr Milosevic with economic sanctions unless he abided by his Dayton commitments, which include handing over the indicted war criminal and former Bosnian Serb president, Mr Radovan Karadzic, and others.
"Holbrooke is bringing a bagful of carrots and sticks. It's up to Milosevic to choose which he would rather have," one diplomat said.
As then-president of Serbia, Mr Milosevic was one of the signatories of the Dayton peace accord which Mr Holbrooke helped to engineer and which stipulated that Mr Karadzic, once Mr Milosevic's protege, should no longer take part in politics.
A year later Mr Karadzic and his allies persist in attempting to circumvent the accords and undermine his successor as Bosnian Serb president, Ms Biljana Plavsic.
On his way to Belgrade, Mr Holbrooke flew to the north Bosnian town of Banja Luka to show support for Ms Plavsic.
He repeated the international community's resolve to see Mr Karadzic handed over to the tribunal on war crimes in former Yugoslavia in The Hague. - (Reuter)