Bosnia peace post set to be extended

BRUSSELS, Feb 26 (Reuters) The powerful post of Bosnia's peace overseer is likely to be extended for a year from July due to concerns about the political stability of the tiny Balkan state, officials said today.

Nevertheless, European Union officials said separately the bloc would approve plans on Tuesday to more than halve its 6,000-strong peace force in Bosnia by June, saying they had few concerns about security.

An extension of the mandate of the Office of the High Representative is expected to be agreed on Tuesday by Bosnia's Peace Implementation Council, said the spokesman for German Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who is due to step down on June 30.

''There appears to be a consensus that the mandate will be extended for a year,'' Chris Bennett said. ''The terms will be discussed at this meeting as well as the decision itself.'' The post, set up to oversee implementation of the Dayton peace agreement ending the 1992-95 war and giving the holder powers to sack officials and impose laws, had been due for abolition after June 30.

However, Schwarz-Schilling said last month he would argue against scrapping it due to concerns that an imminent decision on the future of the breakaway province of Kosovo in neighbouring Serbia could raise ethnic tensions in Bosnia.

Bosnian leaders also failed last week to break a year-long deadlock over unification of police forces, a condition for establishing closer ties with the European Union.

The EU wants Bosnia to have its 16,000 policemen, now divided into 15 separate police forces, integrated into a single structure that would be politically unbiased and operate across the Balkan country without artificial boundaries.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the bloc still expected on Tuesday to approve longstanding recommendations from EU military advisers that it should cut the 6,000-strong EUFOR to 2,500.

''We are much more relaxed about the security element,'' he told reporters after a meeting with officials from EU and NATO officials on Bosnia in Brussels.

EU officials have said they ultimately want to convert the military presence inherited by the EU from NATO in 2004 into a civilian force involved in lighter police-style tasks.

REUTERS SAM RN2351