DAYTON, Ohio — Five years after the Dayton Peace Accords ended the war in Bosnia, some Balkan leaders and U.S. diplomats are frustrated over failure to fully implement the agreement.

        “As long as Bosnia has three armies, as long as refugees can't return home, as long as corruption remains rampant and unchecked, as long as press freedom is threatened, and as long as dangerous and divisive war criminals are allowed to run free, then the potential of Dayton will remain unfulfilled,” Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday.

        The officials were gathered for a conference to mark the anniversary of the 1995 peace pact and to produce policy recommendations to the new U.S. administration.

        Also Friday, President Clinton was awarded the first Dayton Peace Prize for his efforts to end the war in Bosnia and build a lasting peace in the Balkan nation.

        The accords stopped the 3 1/2-year war and recognized the sovereignty of Bosnia, but divided it into two entities — a Bosnian Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat Federation. Each has such powers that they seem to act as independent states instead of two administrative regions.

        Haris Silajdzic, leader of a reformist party and a former prime minister in Bosnia, said some of the most important points of the agreement have never been implemented, such as the return of refugees to their homes and a revitalization of Bosnia's prewar multiethnic society.

        A disappointed Mr. Silajdzic emerged from the closed-door talks at the conference, saying there was a fundamental difference of opinion among participants about whether to revise the accords, as he favors, or maintain the status quo.

        He said he engaged in a “heated discussion” with Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch, the interna tional community's high representative in Bosnia.

        “I called for a radical change because I think what is going on now is little more than legitimizing the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Mr. Silajdzic said.

        Mr. Petritsch agreed that the accords have not been fully implemented, but defended his efforts.

        “That is the reason why I am pushing, cajoling, threatening, dismissing public officials,” he said. “But we need to get the Bosnians to take on ownership of their problems and resolve them in a spirit of compromise in a true democratic way. That is what is still lacking.”

        The Dayton Peace Prize will be presented at the conclusion of the conference tonight. It was not known who would accept the award for Mr. Clinton, who is traveling in Vietnam.

        The award recognizes a person or organization that makes an extraordinary contribution to the peaceful reconstruction of a society torn apart by war.

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