OSCE says split by Bosnian Croats "worst threat to Dayton"

He said he did not see a military threat from the resolution last weekend. But the international community would not accept any breach of the Dayton Agreement.

On the contrary, there would be a reaction within the next few weeks, possibly legal action. But first the international community would have to wait and see what the Bosnia-Herzegovina government did.

Barry said the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) believed it had the exclusive right to represent Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The "independence declaration" last weekend was an attempt to establish separate law-making structures and institutions for the Croatian areas without agreement of the other parties, he said.

Last Saturday, an assembly of Croatian nationalists in the Herzegovina capital Mostar proclaimed a separate government.

Austria's international high representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina Wolfgang Petritsch threatened to use his power to remove them from political office if they went ahead with their plans.

Under the 1995 Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian war, the Croatians were obliged to dissolve their illegal separate state at the time. About 13 per cent of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina is Croatian.

(kil/dpa)