PARIS, May 2 (Reuter) - Foreign Minister Mate Granic assured France on Tuesday that a Croatian army offensive against Serb forces in western Slavonia was of limited scope and would end on Tuesday, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, current chairman of the European Union's council of ministers, telephoned Granic on Tuesday to voice his firm condemnation of the offensive.
"I expressed this morning my disapproval of the Croatian initiative which is counter to commitments which were given to us when the mandate of U.N. peacekeeping forces was renewed (last month)," Juppe told reporters after a meeting with the visiting Mexican foreign minister.
"Let's hope they get back around the negotiating table as fast as possible to negotiate a ceasefire because the initiative that has been taken seems to me very dangerous," he added.
Juppe's spokesman Richard Duque told a separate briefing: "Mr Granic stressed the limited character of this military operation which should end today."
Negotiations between the Zagreb government and the Croatian Serbs based in Knin would resume on Tuesdayafternoon, he said.
