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July 13, 1999
Web posted at: 10:01 a.m. EDT (1401 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

TUZLA, Bosnia (CNN) -- NATO's military committee has recommended reducing the number of peacekeeping troops in Bosnia from about 31,000 to 16,500, U.S. Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

The final decision would have to be made by the North Atlantic Council, made up of ambassadors from NATO's 19 members nations.

Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon, touring the Tuzla military base with U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, said if the plan goes forward, U.S. forces would drop from 6,200 to 4,000.

"It's a continuation of a trend," said Bacon, noting that the alliance had always planned to gradually reduce the force in Bosnia.

Some NATO countries already have announced plans to relocate their troops from Bosnia to the Serb province of Kosovo, where NATO has been building up its peacekeeping force since the end of the alliance's air war with Yugoslavia.

Following the 1995 signing of the Dayton peace accord, which stopped the fighting among ethnic groups in Bosnia, NATO initially sent about 60,000 troops to the Balkan state.

General raises concerns

Maj. Gen. Kevin Byrnes, who commands U.S. forces in Bosnia, briefed Cohen on the NATO peacekeeping effort. While Bosnia appears secure and all parties seem to have complied with the Dayton agreement, some serious problems remain, he informed Cohen.

Byrnes said NATO forces are still required because shadow structures control many aspects of government, and graft and corruption are prevalent.

Yet Cohen, on his fourth stop in a six-country tour, sounded optimistic later at a news conference.

"I would say if progress continues to be made at the current pace, then we can look forward to seeing some reductions in the future," he said.

If NATO formally approves the troop reduction, it could begin in the autumn or early spring.

But the United States "will not move troops directly from Bosnia to Kosovo," Bacon said.

Gen. Wesley Clarke, NATO's supreme commander, who also is visiting the Tuzla base, called the Bosnian peacekeeping mission "a success story."

Correspondent Jamie McIntyre and Reuters contributed to this report.

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