Three days after he committed US forces to remain in Bosnia as part of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission, President Clinton will arrive in Sarajevo to reinforce the political message to the leaders of the country's different communities that they must do much more to ensure that peace and reconciliation become long-term realities. Mr Clinton, who will be accompanied by a large US delegation, including the Secretary of State and 15 members of Congress, will also want to reassure his own domestic audience that, two years after the Dayton peace agreement and the start of the US military deployment, America's commitment to a peacekeeping role in Bosnia will not become an indefinite one.

Among the local political leaders he is expected to meet will be Biljana Plavsic, President of the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska. She has become the one Bosnian Serb leader that the international community is prepared to deal with.