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Indonesia hopes

to firm up

Bosnia peace plan

JAKARTA: Indonesia hopes its plans for peace talks between the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia will be clearer in the next few days, Foreign Ministry spokesman Irawan Abidin said on Friday.

Abidin confirmed invitations to talks sponsored by Indonesia had been delivered directly this month to Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, Croatian President Franjo Tujman and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

"We achieved some understanding that they have agreed in principle (to the proposal)," said.

"We don't know exactly where the meeting will be, but certainly it will be a nice quiet place. There is no date, not yet," Abidin said. "Hopefully, it will be clearer in the next few days."

Mainly Muslim Indonesia is current chairman of the 112- member Non-Aligned Movement.

Abidin brushed off a report quoting a number of official sources in the former Yugoslavia, including a spokesman for Izetbegovic, that they knew nothing of the proposal. He said the proposal went directly to the leaders.

"One of the foreign ministers says he hasn't received it yet but maybe it hasn't trickled down yet," Abidin said.

Suharto has proposed "facilitating" but "not mediating" talks between the three leaders.

Indonesia's special envoy, Nana Sutresna, said on Thursday Jakarta was a possible venue for such talks which are running parallel to other peace initiatives by the United States and a number of European countries.

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, told a satellite news conference on Friday she did not know of the reported acceptance of the Indonesian invitations.-Reuter