A Bosnian Serb missile brought down a U.S. F-16 over northern Bosnia on Friday. NATO launched a search for the American pilot but said it had unconfirmed reports that he had fallen into Serb hands.

``There was this information that the Serbs have the pilot of this plane. It looks like the pilot was (detained),'' Yasushi Akashi, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's envoy for the Balkans, told reporters.

``We very much deplore the shooting down of the NATO plane by a missile. We have a notion of location,'' he said.

NATO commander Admiral Leighton Smith said in Naples that if the pilot had been taken prisoner he should be unconditionally released. The United States, Britain and France are sending reinforcements to the region.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic promised French President Jacques Chirac on Saturday that all U.N. hostages held by Bosnian Serbs would be freed ``very quickly.''

Milosevic telephoned Chirac for the second time in 24 hours and told him that Friday night's ``freeing of 120 hostages, including 63 Frenchmen, was only a first step,'' Chirac spokesman Jerome Peyrat said.

``All the hostages, according to Mr Milosevic, should be freed very quickly, despite the material difficulties linked to their dispersion'' around Bosnia, he said.

More than 200 U.N. personnel are still detained or surrounded by Bosnian Serb forces since they were seized in retaliation for NATO airstrikes last month.

Chirac urged the Serbian leader to push for freedom of all detained troops and cautioned that rump Yugoslavia could win relief from international sanctions only if Milosevic recognised Bosnia as an independent state.

Chirac has taken an active role in his first foreign policy crisis since succeeding Socialist Francois Mitterrand on May 17, winning praise from French U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia for ordering them to stand firm and hit back if attacked.

France has the biggest national contingent in the U.N. Protection force in Bosnia with 3,750 personnel. Thirty-nine French soldiers have been killed in former Yugoslavia.

In talks with Milosevic, ``The French president reaffirmed that this hostage-taking...would not be tolerated,'' Peyrat said.

``The president also underlined that mutual recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia-Montenegro was an indispensable pre-condition for a substantial easing of sanctions and a revival of the moves for peace,'' Peyrat said.

Defence ministers from 15 European Union and NATO states met in Paris on Saturday to discuss creation of a rapid reaction force of about 4,000 or 5,000 troops to help embattled peackeepers in Bosnia.

On the eve of the meeting, a U.S. F-16 fighter was downed while on a routine patrol over northern Bosnia.

France believes that Serbian recognition of Sarajevo would mean the end of dreams of a greater Serbia that helped spark the conflict. One Chirac source described the tone of the Chirac-Milosevic talks as ``frank.''

On Friday evening, an official French source said Milosevic told President Chirac he had won the release of the first 120 hostages as ``a goodwill gesture'' from the Bosnian Serbs after Chirac had asked him to use his influence.

But Bosnian serb leader Radovan Karadjic said he expected ``a sign of goodwill'' from the international community before releasing more peacekeepers.

Bosnian Serbs said they would free more U.N. hostages Tuesday as Greece sought to get them all released by persuading Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to exert influence over his former proteges.

The press center in the Bosnian Serb headquarters of Pale told reporters they would be taken to the town of Zvornik on the border with Serbia to witness the release of an unspecified number of detained U.N. peacekeepers at 4 p.m. (10 a.m. EDT).

Greek Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias and Defense Minister Gerasimos were due to meet Milosevic in Belgrade Tuesday after six hours of talks with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in Pale Monday.

The Bosnian Serbs freed 121 U.N. soldiers last week at Zvornik after Milosevic intervened to secure their release, but are still holding over 250 U.N. personnel.

Greek diplomats in Belgrade said Tuesday they had ``high hopes'' the hostage crisis could be quickly resolved.

Milosevic's state security chief, Jovica Stanisic, remained in Pale and was reported to have held talks into the early morning with the Bosnian Serbs.

Speculation that more U.N. peacekeepers might be released rose after Milosevic sent Stanisic to Pale to join the talks on the hostage crisis. Stanisic was the man who oversaw the escort of the peacekeepers released last Friday.

The Bosnian Serbs are still holding 257 U.N. personnel to ward off further NATO air strikes and are demanding the United Nations guarantee there will be no more allied bombing raids.

``We hope to hear from the international community that there will be no more air strikes but anyway we are going to discuss it with Mr Milosevic,'' Karadzic said after meeting the Greek envoys, adding he himself would not go to Belgrade.

The West has rejected the Serb demands but has backed off from talk of more NATO air strikes.

Western countries are hoping Milosevic, who has broken with the Bosnian Serbs over their rejection of an international peace plan, will exert his influence over his ethnic kin to win the freedom of the peacekeepers.

The Serbian leader appeared however to be using his leverage in the hostage crisis not only to crack the whip over Karadzic but to secure further concessions from the West before agreeing to recognize Bosnia's borders, diplomats said.

U.S. envoy Robert Frasure, representing a four-nation Contact Group, has been trying to clinch a deal easing sanctions on rump Yugoslavia in return for Belgrade recognizing Bosnia.

Diplomats said that although Frasure remained in Belgrade, talks with Milosevic were on hold.

Washington has also been lobbying Milosevic to obtain information from the Bosnian Serbs on the fate of a U.S. F-16 pilot shot down in Bosnia last week.

Bosnian Serb retaliation for NATO air strikes last month has effectively paralyzed the U.N. mission, cutting off aid deliveries to Sarajevo and other government-held enclaves surrounded by Serb forces.

The U.N. high Commissioner for Refugees said the food situation in Sarajevo and the besieged enclaves was critical.

Western countries have called for reinforcing the U.N. mission in Bosnia since the hostage crisis began. But Russia has voiced its opposition to a 10,000-strong European rapid reacton force designed to protect vulnerable peacekeepers.

Eletronic beacon signals, which might have been transmitted by a downed U.S. fighter pilot in Bosnia, are no longer being received by searchers in the area, the Defense Department said on Tuesday.

Flickering hopes for a U.S. pilot shot down over Bosnia dimmed Tuesday as 1,500 American troops prepared to go from Germany to Italy to help shepherd any U.N. pullout from Bosnia.

Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters that electronic beacon signals, which might have been transmitted by the F-16 pilot shot down last week were no longer being received by searchers flying over northern Bosnia.

Cable News Network reported from Bosnia that the Serbs had not captured the pilot despite claims they had done so after the jet was downed by a Serb missile.

``Unfortunately, the beacon signal has not been picked up today (Tuesday),'' Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters at the Defense Department's regular news briefing. He commented on statements from Pentagon officials Monday that some faint electronic beacon signals had been heard.

In Frankfurt, meanwhile, the U.S. Army European Command said that some 1,500 U.S. soldiers would soon join 2,000 troops already stationed in Vicenza, Italy, for training exercises called ``Mountain Shield''.

U.S. defense officials said privately in Washington on Monday that some 3,500 troops and about 100 attack and transport helicopters were expected to begin moving to Vicenza within a week to support any U.N. retreat from Bosnia.

At the Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, however, Bacon declined to clarify the troop movements or to say whether the exercise was a permanent transfer of troops to Italy to await any U.N. decision on whether or not to withdraw its force.

Units from the U.S. Army 5th Corps in Germany, including up to 50 attack and transport helicopters, would be sent ``in the near future'' to northern Italy, said Col. Dick Bridges, chief of public affairs for U.S. Army Europe.

``U.S. Army Europe is planning a continuation of the exercises Mountain Shield at various sites in Italy and southern Germany in mid-June,'' spokesman Jim Boyle told Reuters.

Bacon said the size of an initial contingent of U.S. troops going to Italy for any emergency extraction of U.N. forces might be smaller than originally planned because of an allied ``rapid respose'' force of 10,000 troops now being gathered for Bosnia.

The United States is not providing any troops for that allied force, which will be used to protect U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia from harssment and attack.

``I think it's a dynamic situation and it is premature to talk about firm (U.S.) numbers at this stage,'' he said.

But he said the rapid reaction force would not affect a U.S. promise to provide about 25,000 troops as part of a NATO contingency plan to use some 60,000 troops to shepherd any full U.N. retreat from Bosnia.

The United States, meanwhile, urged restraint Tuesday on Croats who have mounted an offensive along Bosnia's western border aimed at isolating a rebel Serb enclave in Croatia.

``We of course continue to call on all parties to exercise restraint and to resume negotiations for a peaceful settlement,'' State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly said in reply to a question about the offensive.

The U.S. fighter pilot downed in Bosnia has been rescued by a special Marine force, Cable News Network reported early Thursday, quoting a top NATO official.

A U.S. Air Force fighter pilot shot down last Friday in northern Bosnia was rescued on Thursday by a special American military team, U.S. Defence Secetary William Perry said.

``I have got good news,'' Perry told reporters travelling with him from Washington to Brussels. ``The pilot has been rescued'' and was safely aboard the U.S. naval helicopter carrier Kearsarge in the Adriatic.

The chairman of the U.S. military Joint Chiefs of Staff also told reporters in Brussels that the pilot, Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady, 29, of Spokane, Washington, was apparently in good condition despite his ordeal.

``I am told that he is well,'' said Army General John Shalikashvili, ``that he has a six-day beard and that he has a small burn on the back of his neck as a result of exiting the aircraft.''

Shalikashvili said O'Grady was picked up ``not far away from where the aircraft went down,'' southwest of Serb-held Banja Luka.

O'Grady's F-16 fighter jet, based in Aviano, Italy, was shot down by a Serb SA-6 anti-aircraft missile last Friday and hopes had diminished for finding him alive despite intermittent electronic signals from the area which later turned out to be a navigational beacon.

Perry said the pilot had been rescued by a team which included Marine Cobra attack helicopters and CH-53 transport helicopters from the Kearsarge covered by U.S. F-18 fighter jets and EF-111 and EA-6B electronic warfare planes.

Defence officials said they believed that O'Grady had remained hidden for most of the time and did not try to begin sending voice signals until late Wednesday night.

``Apparently he got away from the crash site and eventually made very short, discreet contacts,'' with U.S. rescue teams flying over the area, said a senior U.S. defence official travelling with Perry.

Perry said that as soon as it was determined the voice signals were indeed from O'Grady and after his position was pinpointed, the rescue effort was launched by Navy Admiral Leighton Smith, commander of southern NATO forces based in Naples, Italy.

O'Grady was rescued around midnight EDT (0400 GMT), about 90 minutes after making voice contact.

At the end of Perry's news conference, Army General George Joulwan, commander of U.S. forces in Europe and supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe, walked up to the defence secretary and Shalikashvili.

Shalikashvili told Joulwan: ``George, congratulations, my friend, well done.''

Earlier, on his aircraft en route to Brussels from Washington, Perry criticised the U.S. Air Force's chief of staff for telling reporters this week rescue teams had heard what could have been electronic beeper signals from the pilot.

Monday's statement by four-star General Ronald Fogelman to reporters in Washington sparked hopes the pilot was still alive. But the Pentagon dashed those hopes again on Tuesday, saying the signals were no longer being heard. Senior defence officials said on Thursday the signal was a navigational beacon that had nothting to do with the pilot.

``Fogelman made a mistake by commenting on data on an operation which was ongoing,'' Perry said. ``He knows he made the mistake... He realised it right after he said it,'' added Perry.

``He feels bad enough about it. I don't have to say anything to make him feel any worse.''

The American pilot rescued on Thursday six days after his plane was shot down by Bosnian Serbs is suffering from hypothermia, a NATO spokesman said.

The pilot's base at Aviano, northeast Italy, said earlier he was expected to return there from the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT) but the NATO spokesman said his movements had not been finalised.

A small fleet of aircraft swept over the Adriatic coast early Thursday to pick up Basher 52, the code name for the downed American F-16 pilot who was hiding in pine woods on a hilltop 60 miles away.

The Pentagon said in briefings for reporters that the daring rescue mission went off without a hitch, ``a textbook case,'' carried out by two CH-53 helicopters with some 40 Marine Expeditionary Force troops. They were escorted by two missile- and rocket-armed Cobra helicopters and a pair of Harrier jump jets as they flew just over the treetops.

The Marines had been waiting 5 3/8 days aboard the assault ship and carrier USS Kearsarge some 20 miles off the coast for a signal from Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady, the pilot.

O'Grady, 29, was alone with a survival package strapped to his ejection seat that contained water, some dried food, a variety of flares, a beacon/radio signal transmitter, a pistol and a survival manual including instructions on what flora and fauna are edible.

After days of mixed signals, some of which rescuers feared were a trap set by the Bosnian Serbs, a pilot flying over the coast heard O'Grady's radio at 2:08 a.m. local time. He knew him and recognized his voice. By 2:20, his location was confirmed, only a short distance from where his plane had been shot down.

The Marine ``Trap Package'', which stands for Tactical Recovery of Aircraft or Personnel, was in the air just as dawn broke shortly after 5 a.m., covered by a fleet of close air support and fighters from the NATO base at Aviano, Italy -- A-10s, F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, F-111s, A-6Bs. They started suppressing Serb radar, deflecting signals and creating phantom images for them to look at on their radars.

Within 40 minutes, the CH-53s put down in a clearing after O'Grady set off a flare sending yellow smoke into the air. The Cobras circled in a wide arc to discourage Serbian opposition.

The Marines jumped from the helicopters and moved quickly into position in a circle to protect O'Grady, who darted from the woods armed with a 9mm pistol and wearing a flight suit.

In less than two minutes the Marines piled back on board and the helicopters raced toward the coast. Serbs fired shoulder-held missiles and automatic weapons at them but missed and they returned to the Kearsage unscathed.

O'Grady collapsed, from exhaustion or happiness, and then asked for a snack. Given an MRE -- Meals, Ready To Eat, a universally disdained package of less-than-tasty food -- he devoured it.

Air Force Col. John Chapman, who is in charge of the military's survival training, told a briefing ``we had no idea he had escaped until we heard him on the radio.'' He said O'Grady was taught at survival school in Washington state near his home in Spokane how to eat insects to survive.

``They try to get you over your food aversions,'' he said. Noting how eagerly O'Grady grabbed at the MRE, he added: ``it is obvious he got over them.''

One of the helicopters that plucked a downed American pilot from Serb-held Bosnia was hit in the rotor blades by small arms fire, a member of the rescue team said on Thursday.

Marine Sergeant Scott Pheister told CNN television: ``We took fire from a lot of places. We have a couple of blades that have bullet holes through them.''

U.S. Marines who swooped into Bosnia to rescue downed American pilot Scott O'Grady mixed the nonchalance of professionals with the excitement of novices after plucking him from hostile territory.

The 40-strong Marine Corps force from the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge took fire from Bosnian Serbs when they flew in at dawn Thursday in two CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters with an escort of missile- and rocket-armed Cobra helicopters.

``We are very pumped up. The last nine months you train for this kind of mission never knowing if you're really going to do it,'' Lt. Col. Christopher Gunther, a mission commander, told reporters flown out to the Kearsarge.

``And then all of a sudden, you're on the ground and you see this guy, tired, cold, five day's growth of beard, coming through the woods with his pistol and you say: 'My God, here it is, it's all here. We've just rescued an American'.''

Air Force Capt. O'Grady, 29, was resting in the Kearsarge hospital Thursday night, recovering from exposure and fatigue after six days in hiding, living on bugs and rainwater.

The first secure word that he had survived the Bosnian Serb surface-to-air missile strike which destroyed his F-16 fighter last Friday came at 2:08 a.m. Thursday (8:08 p.m. Wednesday) when he made voice contact with a NATO aircraft on his portable radio.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, with 2,000 marines on three vessels in the Adriatic, sprang into action at 5 a.m. (11 p.m. EDT Wednesday).

Unit commander Col. Martin Berndt led his men in person, the helicopters skimming low over the treetops at sunrise to land just 50 yards from the woods where O'Grady, code-named Basher 52, had taken cover.

``The landing zone was perhaps not as safe as we would have liked but to see him running through the brush, covered in sweat and water, with his pistol in his hand, making his way to the aircraft is not a scene that I'll soon forget,'' he said.

``I am the cheerleader and spokesman for an outfit that does this for a living. We're darn good at it. We had pretty good luck this morning. I hope we don't have to do this again but if we do, we're ready to do it,'' Berndt said.

``We had some fog, we had some adrenalin pumping. We had a lot of things going for us.''

The units has a history of dramatic missions, with experience in the Gulf, Lebanon, Kurdistan, Somalia, and Haiti.

``All in all, when you wake people up in the middle night and say 'Go and do this' it's not like the first time they've seen it. They're used to it. It's what we do. It's routine,'' he said.

Apart from the Cobras, the CH-53s were also backed up by AV-8 aircraft for high protection and Harrier jump jets.

``The Cobras went in, they located Capt. O'Grady. They were kind enough to drop a smoke grenade right on the spot. We flew in with the two CH-53 helicopters, landed, disembarked, and we flew on back,'' Gunther said.

Berndt said he saw one surface-to-air missile fired by Bosnian Serbs on their way out of the area but he believed two were fired.

Neither hit the aircraft but other Marines said small arms fire had holed one of the helicopters.

``We have a couple of little holes in one of these helicopters we'll have to fix,'' said Maj. Scott Mkyleby, escort flight leader for the rescue operation.

Marine Sgt. Scott Pheister told CNN television: ``We took fire from a lot of places. We have a couple of blades that have bullet holes through them.''