CONVOY ATTACKED IN SARAJEVO

Snipers opened fire on a convoy carrying Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic from Sarajevo airport yesterday, and a United States television journalist was killed in the attack.

ABC-TV in New York said producer David Kaplan was hit by a single bullet and died in a hospital shortly afterward. Kaplan was part of a crew pre-paring a report on the fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency said the convoy was attacked on its way from the airport to the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeepers in the center of the besieged Bosnian capital.

Prime Minister Panic flew to Sarajevo for talks with Bosnia's Serb and Croat leaders involved in the ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslav republic.

It was unclear if Panic would meet Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, a Muslim. Tanjug said President Izetbegovic told journalists he was too busy and had no intention of meeting the Yugoslav premier.

Serbian-born Panic, a self-made Los Angeles millionaire who became prime minister last month, said Wednesday he would recognize Bosnian independence within its present borders and that Yugoslavia had no territorial claims upon it.

Bosnian Serbs have captured 70 percent of Bosnian territory since fighting began in April.