More Trouble Threatening Bosnia Peace Germans Cancel Meeting Of Muslim And Croat Leaders

In a sign of deepening disarray that is threatening the Bosnian peace accords, the German foreign minister announced Wednesday that he is canceling a meeting intended to bring Bosnian Muslim and Croat leaders together to help strengthen their uneasy federation.

A foreign ministry statement said the two sides of the Bosnian Muslim-Croat Federation are too far apart for the meeting, which had been set for today, to take place.

The alliance of Muslims and Croats has been a central element of U.S. and European strategy to mold peace in Bosnia by forging the two groups into a federation to counter Bosnian Serb power.

But the persistent inability of the two sides to overcome territorial and political differences is creating a mood of growing frustration within the so-called “contact group” on the Balkans, which includes the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Russia.

“They must know that peace will not be served up on a silver platter,” Martin Erdmann, a German foreign ministry spokesman, said after the announcement that the talks had been canceled.

German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said that in preparatory talks, the two sides “did not see themselves in a position to come closer on their existing differences.”