Bosnian Serbs have agreed to cancel a referendum that had threatened to throw the country into deeper political turmoil.

The Serb region of Bosnia had planned to ask its citizens next month whether they accepted the authority of the national court and the international envoy overseeing Bosnia's fragile peace, a move that could have caused deeper ethnic splits.

The EU had urged the Bosnian Serb leadership to drop the referendum and international envoy Valentin Inzko, who has extensive powers in the country, was expected to annul the vote on Friday.

Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik announced the decision after meeting EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, who arrived on a surprise visit to Bosnia to demonstrate the international community's growing alarm.

Polls apart

Dodik told reporters he had opted instead to start negotiations with the EU over judicial reforms in the country.
"I believe we have a credible partner who has not only acknowledged our concerns with regards to the ... functioning of the judiciary at Bosnia-Herzegovina level but is also ready to invest its credibility into that process," Dodik said.
"With this...we regard that a referendum is not necessary for now," Dodik said, adding that the Serb Republic parliament would convene to reconsider its decision on holding the referendum.
"I believe that I shall get support from the parliament."

The decision was also announced in Brussels. International envoy Valentin Inzko had earlier said the referendum was the "most serious challenge" to Bosnia's viability since the end of the Balkan country's 1992-95 war which killed 100,000 people.

In recent years, the country has been locked in a political crisis between its former adversaries living in two autonomous regions -- a Serb Republic sceptical of national institutions, and a federation shared by Muslims and Croats.

Dodik, who has often advocated secession of his region from Bosnia, says the national court, which prosecutes war crimes suspects, is biased against Serbs.
Western countries said one of Bosnia's regions had no right to question the legitimacy of its national institutions.

The Bosnian Serb president has often tested the limits on what the international community would accept in terms of enhanced autonomy for his Serb Republic, but typically pulled back when he judged a certain course of action was getting out of control.
Ashton, speaking at a joint press conference with Dodik, welcomed the move.

"I was pleased to hear your commitments to remove the threat of referendum and review the conclusions," Ashton told Dodik. "We consider that this dialogue will establish solutions to these concrete problems."

Source: REUTERS