BONN - The former US diplomat Mr Richard Holbrooke, one of the primary authors of the Dayton peace pact for Bosnia, says peacekeeping forces would be needed in the Balkans well into next year.
But he told the Frankfurter Rundschau that the mandate and composition of the force should be decided only after Bosnian elections tentatively set for September. "There will have to be a son of Ifor," he said in an interview published today, referring to the Nato led peacekeeping force whose mandate expires in December.
Mr Holbrooke, now a New York investment banker, said the US and Europe would have to work together to keep the peace because neither could do the job alone.
Nato officials have been reluctant to discuss the prospects of extending the 60,000 strong Ifor peacekeeping force's mandate until after the elections.