BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The eight-member Yugoslav State Presidency reconvened Friday on a cease-fire propsal, and a high-level European Community delegation arrived in Croatia in a quest for peace as ethnic clashes claimed more casualties in the independence-seeking republic.
There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties in the latest clashes between Serbs and Croats.
The eight-member federal presidency met in Belgrade, focusing on a proposed cease-fire plan submitted earlier by the panel to the Croatian government.
Details of the proposal were undisclosed and there was no word on the Croatian leadership's reaction to it. Even so, the plan could be enacted by a majority vote of the body regardless of Croatia's decision.
New details emerged from a fierce battle fought Thursday in which rebel Serbs captured the predominantly Croatian village of Dalj in Croatia's disputed eastern Slavonija region bordering Serbia.
The official death toll was placed at seven including two Croatian police officers.
But Tanjug, the national news agency, reported 'tens' of bodies of Croatian police, militiamen and irregulars still lying in the center of the town, about 90 miles northwest of Belgrade, adding that an estimated total of 80 people were killed in the eight-hour battle. It said rebel Serbs captured 40 Croats.
Witnesses reported at least 22 people killed, while state-run Belgrade Radio put the toll at 50.
The crisis, sparked by the insurrection of the republic's Serbian minority, was to have been debated for a second day by the Croatian Assembly in Zagreb. But the session was postponed until Saturday amid an apparent feud within the ruling Croatian Democratic Union between advocates of a declaration of war and supporters of conciliation with the Serbs.
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman told the legislature Thursday that the republic lacked the weapons for a general mobilization and he prefered to cooperate for now with peace-seeking efforts of the 12- nation EC.
Three foreign ministers -- Hans Van Den Broek of Holland, Jacques Poos of Luxembourg and Joao Pinheiro of Portugal -- flew into Zagreb for talks with Tudjman in the third visit in less than a month by community officials seeking to mediate a peaceful resolution to the violence in Yugoslavia.
The ministers were to visit the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana on Saturday and then travel to Belgrade.
The foreign ministers came to the country twice in June, brokering an agreement that brought an end to weeklong fighting between Slovenian militia and federal troops and mandated a three-month moratorium on June 25 independence declarations by Slovenia and Croatia to allow for negotiations.
Among other issues, the current mission was to consider a request by Tudjman for EC observers to be sent to Croatia to monitor troop withdrawal, as has been done in Slovenia. But a condition for EC agreement to the request was the implementation of a cease-fire Croatia.
Croatia's 600,000 Serbs fear persecution if the republic secedes and are fighting the inclusion of their enclaves in Tudjman's independence drive. Croatian leaders charge the insurrection is fomented by communist-ruled Serbia and aided by the Serb-dominated federal military as part of a plan to annex territory and create a 'Grand Serbia.'
The Yugoslav People's Army, which has been involved in frequent clashes with Croatian militia and irregulars, reiterated that its units in Croatian troublespots are trying to maintain peace, although officials said troops 'will fire back strongly at those who would attack them.'
The Sarajevo-based headquarters of the 1st Army, which covers parts of the republic, warned Croatian officials against carrying out 'very dangerous' threats to cut water, electricity and telephone connections to military bases in the strife-torn republic.
'It is superfluous to mention that such an action would be insane, because all must have electricity and water, or nobody will have them, about which the creators of disruptions of supplies to the Yugoslav Peoples Army should consider well,' a statement said.
State-run radio and Tanjug, the national news agency, reported a slew of bombings, gunshots and mortar duels in different areas of the republic in which at least three civilians were wounded.
A series of blasts in the Slavonija town of Osijek left several vehicles and buildings damaged. Three explosive devices slightly damaged buildings in a federal military compound in the Adriatic coastal city of Split.
In another incident, about 40 armed Croatian civilians broke into a federal military armory at about 4:30 a.m. in Bregana, 15 miles west of Zagreb, loaded a truck with weapons and ammunition and drove off, an army statement said.
'Instigation for this was given at yesterday's session of the Croatian Assembly,' the statement said.
Elsewhere, Croatian security forces reoccupied a town in the disputed central Banija region that they abandoned Wednesday. The Croats moved into Kostajnica, 60 miles southeast of Zagreb, after a pullout by federal military units that deployed in the town on Thursday, Tanjug said.
