But the deadly artillery attacks by the Bosnian Serbs during the last two days proved too much for the Bosnian leadership to stomach.
However, the Bosnian leadership at the time viewed the meeting as part of a collusion between Milošević and Tuđman to destroy Bosnia.
In daily news briefings, he has made no secret of his distrust for the Bosnian leadership.
The Presidents of Serbia and Croatia said they backed it, but the Bosnian leadership criticized it.
Officials here say the open split in the Bosnian leadership creates a quandary for the mediators.
It was also the only entry and exit road for the Bosnian political leadership.
With a weakening of Serb dominance in Bosnian communist leadership, the door opened up for a new national identification.
But few outsiders believe the Bosnian Serb leadership would be willing or able to hold an honest referendum.
Sarajevo itself came under artillery fire on April 21; the Bosnian leadership believed that the Serbs were attempting to cut the city in two.
And American diplomats are scurrying to visit a Bosnian Serb leadership that was supposed to be locked in punitive isolation.