31.   The government and Serb rebels, ignoring last-minute international appeals to extend a truce that expires in two days, stepped up fighting today across northern Bosnia.

32.   The government and Serb rebels, ignoring last-minute international appeals to extend a truce that expires in two days, stepped up fighting Saturday across northern Bosnia.

33.   The Russian commander in Chechnya, Lt. Gen. Mikhail Yegorov, told the Interfax news agency he had no orders to extend the truce.

34.   The sides agreed during a recent meeting in Moscow to extend the truce, although some skirmishing has persisted.

35.   They too say they will not extend the truce.

36.   While extending the truce, the FLNC claimed responsibility for recent machine gun attacks on police stations across the island and on the courthouse in Ajaccio in southern Corsica.

37.   While the Bosnian government refused to extend the truce, it pledged to restrain its army if rebel Serbs do not attack or block food aid.

38.   In Belgrade, the news agency Tanjug quoted Akashi as saying after the Pale talks that the Bosnian Serbs favoured extending the truce for a month.

39.   Iranian sources said the two sides had agreed in indirect talks in Tehran to extend the truce for another month.

40.   Akashi told a news conference he would visit Sarajevo and the Bosnian Serb capital of Pale next week in an effort to extend the truce.