One of the chief suspects at the International War Crimes Tribunal has admitted to committing a crime against humanity.
Bosnian Serb wartime leader Biljana Plavsic was speaking by video-link from a UN war crimes tribunal office in Yugoslavia.
She pleaded guilty to the crime of persecution. After changing her plea, prosecutors in The Hague dropped all other charges against her.
Plavsic, who surrendered to the tribunal in January 2001 and was released on her own recognisance, had denied eight counts of war crimes, including genocide, relating to her alleged criminal role in Bosnia's near four year year war.
She has been named as a possible witness against other leading suspects, such as former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, now on trial for genocide and war crimes in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.