178 ARMED INCIDENTS IN REPORTED SARAJEVO YESTERDAY, UN SAYS

SARAJEVO, Feb 9 (Hina) - 178 armed incidents have been reported in Sarajevo in the past 24 hours, the UN in Sarajevo said today. Despite the fact that rifle-launched grenades were used in some cases, none of the incidents constituted a violation of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, UN officials said. "178 incidents may seem a lot, but don't forget that we used to report as many as 7,800 of them in November," UN spokesman, Alexander Ivanko said. But he admitted the incidents had caused "concern". According to UN military reporters, the Bosnian army continued digging trenches at a separation line running near the Jewish cemetery - which could destabilise the situation because the Serbs were already issuing threats. UN spokesman Gary Coward feared that such incidents - most of which occurred in the western suburbs of Butmir, Ilidza and Rajlovac - could threaten the security of blue routes crossing the Sarajevo airport. Yesterday's talks on the opening of blue routes to commercial traffic broke up because of a controversy regarding the release of prisoners-of-war. (hina) as 091319 MET feb 95