Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994                   TAG: 9412200037
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA                                 LENGTH: Medium

CARTER DEPARTS FOR CROATIA

There were unconfirmed reports that a key government-held town in northwestern Bosnia had fallen.

Carter left Atlanta on Saturday on a plane for Germany. He said he would go to Zagreb, Croatia, headquarters of the U.N. mission to the former Yugoslavia, and decide then whether to travel to Sarajevo.

A statement from the Carter Center in Atlanta said Carter decided to make the trip after ``extensive discussions'' with the White House and U.N. officials. He planned to leave Saturday.

Carter said he would meet with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic in Zagreb. He also was expected to meet with the U.N. chief for former Yugoslavia, Yasushi Akashi of Japan.

If he decides to go to Bosnia, Carter was expected to visit Bosnian Serb headquarters at Pale, outside Sarajevo, and Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic invited Carter to help restart peace talks. Carter successfully intervened this year to break deadlocks and resolve crises in Haiti and North Korea.

But the visit is raising concern from all sides that Karadzic is using Carter to undermine an international peace plan that would reduce Serb territory in Bosnia to 49 percent from the 70 percent it now holds. The Serbs, who have had the military advantage in Bosnia since the outset of the war, have rejected the plan, despite repeated efforts by international mediators and diplomats.

Carter said he will encourage the Bosnian Serbs to accept the peace plan.