July 30, 1999
Web posted at: 12:20 p.m. EDT (1620 GMT)

In this story: Delegate hopes 'war becomes unthinkable' Washington aid not offered to Serbia Belgrade responds to summit snubbing RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Leaders from nearly 40 countries endorsed a blueprint Friday for bringing peace and prosperity to the troubled Balkans.

Before adjourning, leaders from the United States, the European Union and Balkan nations pledged to promote political and economic development and to increase security in the region.

"We confirm our commitment to overcome the tragedies which have afflicted southeastern Europe during this decade," according to a communiqué from a three-hour summit in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. A closed-door meeting of Balkan leaders, minus Yugoslavia, was held Thursday.

The leaders' goals include creating mature democracies and vibrant market economies, combating corruption and organized crime and preventing new wars and refugee crises.

European Union President Martti Ahtisaari, who also is Finland's president, chaired the summit

Delegate hopes 'war becomes unthinkable'

European Union President Martti Ahtisaari, who also is president of Finland, expressed hope at the start of the summit that there will be lasting peace in the Balkans and the creation of an undivided Europe "where war becomes unthinkable."

"The stability pact for southeast Europe was launched to ensure the horrors this city suffered in recent years will definitely belong to the past," he said of Sarajevo, which was devastated by shelling during the 1992-1995 siege of the city by Bosnian Serb forces.

The summit took place in Sarajevo's Zetra sports complex, a 1984 Winter Olympics venue that was damaged during the conflict but has been rebuilt.

Ahtisaari said he believed the turbulent region was ready for democratic change after a decade of ethnic conflict. A Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo prompted the 78-day NATO bombing in the Serb province that ended in June.

Washington aid not offered to Serbia

The United States on Friday offered an economic aid package worth nearly $700 million for post-war reconstruction in the Balkans.

But no economic assistance was offered to Serbia, whose leadership remained the subject of intense criticism by U.S. President Bill Clinton and other Western leaders at the conference.

The United States is among several nations that is restricting its aid to Yugoslavia's main republic until Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic leaves office.

"Serbia will only have a future when Mr. Milosevic and his policies are consigned to the past," Clinton said.

Clinton offered "generous, immediate and unilateral steps" to encourage exports from the region, establish investment funds and provide technical assistance, according to a summit statement.

The plan would allow many products from southeastern Europe to enter the United States duty-free, said Gene Sperling, the president's economic adviser.

The administration's package would create a $150 million investment fund and a $200 million line of credit for businesses in the Balkans.

It would also establish a regional equity fund. Washington would contribute $34 million to a $114 million fund for business development.

Clinton urged the European Union to follow suit by giving the region better access to its markets.

Belgrade responds to summit snubbing

In remarks for delivery during the conference session, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the stability pact needed cooperation from Yugoslavia to be truly successful.

But Schroeder added: "It would be a disservice" to the people of Yugoslavia, "if we now strengthen the regime in Belgrade."

Yugoslavia, excluded from the summit, warned there could be no stability in the region without its participation.

"There can be no unified southeastern Europe without Yugoslavia, and everything else is a continuation of political blackmail with which the Serb people and Yugoslavia were faced all these years," said Ivica Dacic, a spokesman for Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party in Belgrade.

Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said the world should not punish Yugoslavians by linking aid to Milosevic's continued rule.

"Ten million people are at stake, who are living in very grave conditions, and the danger of a humanitarian catastrophe will turn real by winter," Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

Correspondent Chris Black and Reuters contributed to this report.