  Emission of pi, K, phi and Lambda was measured in near-central C+C and Si+Si
collisions at 158 AGeV beam energy. Together with earlier data for p+p, S+S and
Pb+Pb, the system-size dependence of relative strangeness production in
nucleus-nucleus collisions is obtained. Its fast rise and the saturation
observed at about 60 participating nucleons can be understood as onset of the
formation of coherent partonic subsystems of increasing size.
