Defiant Serbia Moves to Avert Gas Shortages; Rationing a Possibility : Sanctions: Five-hour waits reported as drivers rush to fill tanks. The embargo is not expected to bring quick changes in regime’s attitude.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia —  Dodging the hardest punch of international sanctions, the defiant Serbian government announced conservation measures Monday to prevent panic-buying from creating a gasoline shortage.

The emergency energy-savings program reported by the Tanjug news agency did not specifically say that gas rationing is planned, but Western diplomats in this increasingly ostracized capital said they have been told that ration coupons have already been prepared for issue to private car owners.

Drivers rushed to fill up their tanks when rumors of imminent rationing spread, forming miles-long lines at gas stations and creating traffic jams on the busy city streets.

But aside from five-hour waits at central filling stations, Belgrade has shown no outward sign that sanctions approved by the United Nations over the weekend have imposed any great inconvenience.

“These are pin pricks!” said one Serbian journalist, predicting that it would be months before Serbs experienced serious hardship from the sanctions.

An oil embargo, a ban on all trade, severed air links and exclusion from scientific, cultural and sporting organizations were among the U.N. measures imposed on Serbia and Montenegro for their role in the violence racking Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Treasury Department in Washington, carrying out steps announced late Saturday by President Bush, froze an estimated $200 million in Yugoslav assets, according to the Associated Press.

Speaking at a State Department briefing, spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said the U.S. freeze includes all assets, including bank deposits, of the Yugoslav government and the governments of Serbia and Montenegro. The action covers overseas branches of U.S. banks.

Violations of the freeze are subject to criminal fines of up to $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for corporations; imprisonment for up to 10 years, and civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.

Tutwiler cautioned against hopes that the sanctions would bring an immediate change in the behavior of the Belgrade regime’s leaders.

Here in Belgrade, Nikola Sajinovic, Serbia’s deputy prime minister responsible for energy matters, insisted that “there will be no fuel shortages.” He said that refineries in Novi Sad and Pancevo could process enough oil to make up for lost imports.

But Serbia and Montenegro, the only two republics left in Yugoslavia, are capable of producing only about 20% of fuel needs. The rest was imported from China, Russia, Iran and Romania, which are expected to abide by the U.N. blockade.

Belgrade newspapers have assured the public that substantial reserves were imported in recent weeks. But foreign observers and those outside the government say that supplies can last no more than a month or two without strict conservation measures.

In addition to gas rationing, authorities are expected to make greater use of electric trains and trolleys, taking advantage of the abundant hydroelectric power supplies that have made Serbia a traditional electricity exporter.

“I don’t think the reserves will last beyond a month, but it’s difficult to say what the public reaction will be,” said Zoran Djindjic of the opposition Democratic Party. “We have no situation to compare this to. People here have endured times when there was no coffee and times when there was no gas, but never, at least in recent decades, times when there was nothing.”

The oil embargo is the only measure with the potential to swiftly cut into Serbian lifestyles. Relatively affluent for Eastern Europeans, most families here own cars and are accustomed to vacationing in Western Europe. Serbia is self-sufficient in food and electricity, which should shield the population from tangible hardship, at least until winter.

Western economists predict that the sanctions will eventually have a devastating effect on the economy, as many factories depend on foreign materials or parts.

But the Serbian people have already been plodding along through economic chaos for more than a year. Massive money-printing to bankroll the army has sent inflation soaring to the unfathomable annual rate of 100,000%.

Some predict that an innate resistance to outside pressure will stiffen Serbian resolve to weather the sanctions, as President Slobodan Milosevic has convinced many Serbs it is their patriotic duty to endure the injustices imposed by conspiring enemies.

Sanctions were slapped on Serbia ostensibly for its role in the Bosnian bloodshed. But they are also aimed at pressuring the Serbian public to overthrow the Milosevic regime.