AKASHI, COT SAY UNROFOR IN URGENT NEED OF FRESH 10,650 TROOPS

ZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - The UN secretary general's special representative to former Yugoslavia, Yasushi Akashi, and the UN Protection Force commander, General Jean Cot of France, told a press conference at UN headquarters in Zagreb on Thursday that UNPROFOR was in urgent need of 10,650 fresh troops for Bosnia- Herzegovina. "Unless we get the necessary personnel now, there is a danger we may lose what we have achieved in the past few days in Sarajevo and elsewhere," Akashi warned. He went on to caution that the UN Security Council must take into account from which countries troops would be attached to the UN Protection Force, and that military formations from neighbouring countries as well as from those with special "historical and political ties" with Bosnia could not be accepted. Akashi urged UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to appoint a temporary administrator for Sarajevo. Asked about the opening of Tuzla airport, Akashi replied the UN wanted to open the airport as soon as possible "on the basis of agreement of all sides, but if this is not possible we shall open it without consent." Forces of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and the Bosnian Army are mainly complying with the cease-fire agreement signed by Bosnian Croat and Moslem generals Ante Roso and Rasim Delic respectively on 23 February. 031456 MET mar 94