SECURITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS UN MISSION'S EXTENSION IN BOSNIA ON SUNDAY

NEW YORK, June 29 (Hina) - The United Nations hopes that Security Council members will be able to agree on the prolongation of the UN Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (UNMBIH) until the end of this year, and this will make it possible for the UN to transfer authorities to the European Union mission, which takes over the duty on 1 January 2003, a spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Fred Eckhard, said on Friday evening. #L# If the UN mission ends abruptly on Sunday, plans for the unhampered transfer of powers will evaporate, but Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the UN peace operations office hope that the Council will reach compromise and that the current blockade will not lead to an early completion of the mandate, Eckhard said. The blockade is caused by the United States' demand that its soldiers be exempt from the possibility of being prosecuted by the new permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). This put at risk UN. peacekeeping operations in Bosnia with the Court coming into existence on July 1 and the mandate for the Bosnia peacekeeping operations expiring at midnight on June 30. The Security Council failed to reach agreement on the matter on Friday night's closed session, Eckhard said. The Council will continue the session on Sunday in order to find a way to meet the US demand for its UNMBIH soldiers' immunity to be stipulated by a UN resolution on the extension of the UN mandate. The fifteen-member Council has two drafts of the resolution, drawn up by the United States and France. Washington officially warned that it would veto the prolongation of the mandate if its demand was not met. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher on Friday expressed hope that the agreement would be possible but added that the US would not and could not give up from its request. (hina) ms