Russia says it would be prepared to work with NATO should there be a mass evacuation of United Nations troops from Bosnia, but analysts believe the operation would be fraught with political and logistical problems.


A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nikita Matkovsky, said a "collective" contingency plan to withdraw the troops was being worked out "just in case," although he stressed that he hoped it would not come to that.


Several of the 18 countries with peacekeeping troops in Bosnia have begun talking about withdrawing their forces as the Bosnian Serbs have effectively started treating them as hostile, or in some cases as hostages.


A Foreign Ministry statement said Moscow, which has the best relations with the Serbs of all the powers involved in Bosnia, would also withdraw its peacekeeping contingent "if it has to encounter an escalation of military action.


"A threat like that might arise if the weapons embargo on the Bosnian government is lifted or in the case of use of force unsanctioned by the Security Council, which draws the troops into the conflict," the statement went on.


Matkovsky said the Russians would be prepared to cooperate with NATO, but he said the contingency plan was at an early stage.


Russia has 500 troops stationed outside Sarajevo as part of a total UN force in Bosnia of 23,598 men.


NATO officials have estimated that 35,000 to 40,000 troops would be needed to bring the soldiers out of Bosnia. President Bill Clinton has promised to provide at least half of the troops, committing American ground troops to Bosnia for the first time.


Military experts say the pullout operation would be much more complex than the initial deployment as the peacekeepers would be trying to take all their equipment with them from a war zone. Furthermore the UN troops would face a Moslem population reluctant to see them go.


For the Russians, there is the added potential of political awkwardness if NATO, and in particular American, troops lead the operation.


Gabriel Partos, a Balkan analyst with the BBC World Service, said Moscow and Washington would probably try to reach some arrangement which would save the Russians the embarrassment of being taken out of Bosnia by the Americans and would make it clear the UN was in overall control.


"The Russians would only want to be under an umbrella with UN command," Partos said.