Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on Thursday said his people would demand at least half the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina for a new Serb republic in any future peace settlement of the conflict.


Karadzic, ending a three-day visit to Moscow, will soon be followed to Russia by Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic in the latest sign of Moscow's prominence in the Bosnian peace process.


"Moscow is in the middle of these talks, as is Washington," Karadzic said.


Karadzic attempted to strike a mild note throughout his press conference, repeatedly talking about the need for peace in Bosnia. But he insisted there was no way the Bosnian Serbs would return to a single Bosnian federation.


"We can't sacrifice too much of Serbian territory," Karadzic said. He said that his forces now controlled 72 percent of the land of the former Yugoslav republic and would be prepared to accept "54 or 55 percent" of the territory to make a future autonomous Bosnian Serb republic.


He was equally firm on the new U.S.-brokered proposal for a Croat-Moslem federation in Bosnia.


"If this new common state of Moslems and Croats is not biased against Serbian interests or Serbian people we have nothing against it," Karadzic said.


"However it seems to me that it could be a hostile neighbor toward the Serbs. We certainly can't sacrifice our territories for the sake of this new state. We have to have borders that could be defended in case it becomes hostile."


The tentative agreement for the new Croat-Moslem state was struck in Washington on Tuesday night. Although initially allies against the Serbs, the Croats and the Moslems have been engaged in a bitter war for the control of central Bosnia and around the city of Mostar for the last year.


Although it has been welcomed as a step toward peace the Washington deal is also being seen as the beginning of a recognition that Bosnia cannot survive as a unitary state.


"The agreement signed under Washington's auspices is the first unambiguous signal that Clinton's administration has reconciled itself to the fact that all attempts at making a unified Bosnia have irreversibly failed," said the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, according to Reuters.


Russia has played a key role as arbiter in the conflict in recent weeks. On Tuesday, Moscow negotiated the latest breakthrough, persuading Karadzic to reopen Tuzla airport as long as Russian troops monitored Serb weapons there.


However the UN special envoy in Bosnia, Yasushi Akashi, said Thursday that the deal reached in Moscow was not secure enough.


"The Moscow accord is not a total solution. The Bosnian government side has not agreed to this arrangement," Akashi said.


However, Bosnia's Silajdzic softened his earlier reluctance over Moscow's involvement in Bosnia, Reuters reported.


Silaidzic said Russia's help was needed to end fighting between Moslems and Serbs and he planned to come to Moscow and have talks with Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, the agency said.


Karadzic has been warmly welcomed on his visit to Moscow. As well as Kozyrev, he has met the speakers of both houses of parliament and was received at the Writer's Union.


The Bosnian representative in Moscow, Ibrahim Dzikic said he was "astonished by the reception afforded to a war criminal," referring to the designation given Karadzic by the UN.


Karadzic also watched the Spartak-Barcelona football match Wednesday night with ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Questioned about this Thursday, Karadzic said, "We do not make any differences between Russians."


"During the football we were talking about football," Karadzic said.