U.S. Goals Checked by Limits

WASHINGTON Standing on the verge of wider military involvement inBosnia, President Clinton broadcast two conflicting messages Friday.To the Serbs: NATO means business. To the American people: no groundtroops.

Clinton's statements, repeated several times in a newsconference, underscore the conflict at the center of U.S. policytoward Bosnia. He is willing to use force to try to bring the Serbsback to the negotiating table, but only to a point. Theadministration's policy is defined not so much by its objectives asby its limits.

The president and his aides were cheered by reports that Serbforces had agreed to a cease-fire around the Muslim enclave ofGorazde in …