A TOP LEVEL Balkans crisis summit has been brought forward to Saturday because the Dayton peace agreement faces its "most serious threat" yet, the man who brokered the accord, Mr Richard Holbrooke, said yesterday.
His comments came as western officials maintained the handover timetable for Serb held areas of Sarajevo to Bosnia's Croat Muslim federation, despite a row over the arrest of war crimes suspects which has undermined the accords.
Speaking to reporters in Paris after talks with the French Foreign Minister, Mr Herve de Charette, Mr Holbrooke - architect of the Dayton accords - said the meeting this weekend in Rome had originally been scheduled for a month's time.
"We always knew there would be bumps in the road, and the current challenges are such that we decided to accelerate an already planned implementation conference to this weekend," the US assistant secretary of state told journalists.
"The current situation poses the most serious threat so far to compliance with Dayton. We recognise that," he said. The Rome meeting was organised "because these bumps in the road were getting serious enough to justify it."
Meanwhile Mr Michael Steiner, deputy to Bosnia's civilian peace co ordinator, Mr Carla Bildt, said in Sarajevo that a plan to put police forces from Bosnia's Muslim Croat federation into areas currently under Serb authority by March 19th was practically ready."
"By D plus 91 [March 20th] federation police will have full authority in these areas of Sarajevo," Mr Steiner said. The phrase "D plus 91" means 91 days alter the deployment of the Nato led peace mission in Bosnia.
The move would be done one step at a time. Mr Steiner said, adding that the local Serb leadership and the federation authorities had been informed how we intend to introduce the federation police," Mr Steiner told reporters.
Theoretically, Serb held districts have been under federation authority since February 3id. However under a special ruling by Mr Bildt's office, Bosnian Serb police were permitted to stay in place, a move aimed at averting a Serb exodus.
Meanwhile, the Bosnian Serb military maintained their boycott of contacts with Nato peacekeeping triggered by the Bosnian government's arrest last month of two senior Serb officers suspected of war crimes.
The two men were transferred to The Hague aboard a plane on Monday to undergo questioning by UN war crimes investigators.
Their driver, Mr Radenko Todorovic, was freed yesterday. As he left, Mr Todorovic said he had been told he "was going home" and witnesses said he later crossed into Serb held Sarajevo.
Mr Todorovic's release reduced to three the number of Bosnian Serb soldiers held by the Bosnian government. Pressure has increased for the release of all remaining detainees since the two officers were transferred to the Netherlands.
"There is no change to the situation," an Ifor spokesman, LieutCol Mark Rayner said, adding that high level contacts between the multinational peace Implementation Force (IFOR) and the Bosnian Serb army command remained cut.
For his part Mr Bildt said he was "very concerned by the situation, we now have a fairly long period of non attendance of meetings by the Bosnian Serb side and it is clearly something unacceptable."
He also expressed concern over a lack of funding for reconstruction in Bosnia, seen as playing a crucial role in keeping the peace.
Meanwhile the Croat mayor of western Mostar, Mr Mijo Brajkovic, was expected in Sarajevo today to discuss with his Muslim counterpart, Mr Safet Orucevica, a row over EU attempts to reunite the city's two bitterly divided communities.
The president of Bosnia's MuslimCroat federation, Mr Kresimir Zubak, his Muslim vice president, Mr Ejup Ganic, the Croatian Foreign Minister, Mr Mate Granic, and the EU administrator for the strife torn southern city, Mr Hans Koschnick, were to attend the talks, Croat officials in Mostar said.
The European Parliament urged Nato peacekeepers in Bosnia yesterday to step up efforts to apprehend suspected war criminals.
A parliamentary resolution "underlines that the restoration of a just order in Bosnia Herzegovina presupposes that indicted war criminals will be removed forthwith from influential positions and that they will be arrested and brought to court."