Thursday August 31 5:19 p.m. EDT

Serbs Pull Some Weapons from Sarajevo Area

SARAJEVO (Reuter) - Bosnian Serbs have apparently pulled some heavy weapons out of the Sarajevo area in a bid to keep them from being destroyed by NATO air strikes or U.N. artillery, United Nations officials said Wednesday.

``We have some preliminary reports, as yet not confirmed, that Bosnian Serbs are beginning to withdraw some of their heavy weapons from the (Sarajevo) area,'' a U.N. official said.

U.N. officials have warned the Bosnian Serbs that attacks against Serb heavy weapons, which began Wednesday around Sarajevo, will continue until the guns are destroyed or are withdrawn beyond a 20-km (12-mile) radius of the city.

But a NATO official in Brussels said Thursday that the alliance was determined to continue its military onslaught until Bosnian Serbs effectively ended their siege of Sarajevo and no longer threatened other ``safe areas.''

Bosnian Serb Army General Ratko Mladic said Wednesday he would not comply with the U.N.-NATO ultimatum.

Late Thursday U.N. observers spotted three Serb tanks moving through the north of the 20-km exclusion zone. Officials said it was too early to tell where the weapons were moving, adding that they were continuing to monitor events.

``Pulling the guns out defensively because he wants to save them and pulling them out because he intends to comply with the ultimatum are two different things,'' a diplomat said in Sarajevo.

``One would indicate the attacks are having the desired effect. The other would suggest the Serbs remain defiant.''