THE US President, Mr Bill Clinton, visiting the Balkans this weekend, put new American pressure on Bosnia's Muslims and Croats to make a success of their troubled ethnic alliance.
After visits to US troops in Italy, Hungary and Bosnia on Saturday, Mr Clinton flew to Croatia and told President Franjo Tudjman that the Muslim Croat Federation in Bosnia was the cornerstone" of US policy in the Balkans and must be made to work.
Croatia has considerable influence in Bosnia, and "I come to support not only the peace process, but the federation in Bosnia between the Muslims and the Croats," Mr Clinton told a large crowd at the airport in Zagreb.
According to White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry, Mr Clinton had earlier discussed his fears for the future of the federation in a separate meeting with the Bosnian President, Mr Alija Izetbegovic, at the US base in Tuzla, Bosnia.
Later yesterday, Bosnian Croats and Muslims pledged to make progress within two weeks on shoring up their federation. Pressure had been exerted by Nato and the German Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, as well as Mr Clinton.
The Bosnian Foreign Minister, Mr Muhamed Sacirbey, said the two communities had pledged to unite the ethnically divided city of Mostar, the weak link in the federation and one which has jeopardised the entire Bosnian peace process.
Speaking alter German led talks in Mostar, the Croatian Foreign Minister, Mr Mate Granic, also gave Zagreb's support to the two year old federation but set a number of preconditions.
"We made a commitment that within two weeks there would be concrete progress to integrate the federation, return refugees to their homes and make sure that Mostar is one city with treedom of movement for all, human rights and democracy for all," Mr Sacirbey said.
Mr Kinkel, who chaired the talks, gave the two communities in Mostar two weeks to iron out their differences and reunite the city. Bosnian government radio reported.
Mr Kinkel said the European Union and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would arbitrate in the event that the 14 day deadline was not respected.
"The federation must work. Mostar must be a single city," he told a news conference. "The European Union is determined that the Dayton agreement be implemented to the last comma."
A series of tit for tat killings between Mostar Muslims and Croats has strained the federation which was created under a 1994 peace accord.
Mr Kinkel blamed local Croats' for the Mostar trouble, which erupted when Croat police shot dead a Muslim youth at New Year. "Clearly forces on the Croatian side, who want to disrupt the federation, are at work," he said.
Germany holds strong influence over Zagreb as it led EU recognition of Croatia when it broke from Yugoslavia in 1991.
Under the peace deal, the self styled Bosnian Croat mini state of Herceg Bosna, which covers Croat controlled areas of Merzegovina, must cease to exist in the next two weeks, and the authority of the federation be increased.
But the local Croats in the southern Bosnian Herzegovina region, who have never made any secret of their desire to be part of Croatia rather than Bosnia, have shown few signs of going willingly into a federation with the Muslims they still regard as "enemies" after war in 1993-1994.
. Nato's commander in Bosnia, US Admiral Leighton Smith, said yesterday that his peacekeeping troops did not have a mission to pursue war criminals or unearth mass graves.
The issue has been spotlighted by reports that Bosnian Serbs had hidden up to 8,000 bodies in mineshafts at Ljubija in northwestern Bosnia.
The United States also says there are mass graves near Srebrenica, a Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia that fell to the Serbs last June.
"Our forces are not (here) to pursue indicted war criminals," said Admiral Smith, who commands the Nato led peace Implementation Force (IFOR).
"However, if in the course of our normal duty, we come across them, or they come across us, then our obligation would be to detain them and turn them over to the international tribunal " he told reporters.
"Investigating mass graves is not part of my job. Establishing an environment in which others can do their job is part of my job," said Admiral Smith during a visit to the Croatian town of Trogir.