UN deadlock over international court

The immunity row jeopardises the UN mission in Bosnia

Talks at the United Nations Security Council have so far failed to produce a breakthrough in a dispute over the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court (ICC).

Washington wants peacekeepers it contributes to UN missions to have immunity from prosecution at the court, which becomes operational on Monday.

The ICC

Comes into being on 1 July and begins work early next year

Will be based in The Hague

68 nations have ratified the treaty

100-plus nations have signed up and may ratify the treaty in the future

China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iraq and Turkey have failed to sign up to the treaty

The US, Egypt, Iran, Israel and Russia have failed to ratify the treaty

The Americans say that unless their demands are met, they will veto a renewal of the mandate of the UN mission in Bosnia, which expires the day before.

The UN says Bosnia's fledgling police could run into serious problems if the mission is withdrawn.

Other Security Council member countries have reservations about the American demand for a blanket exemption from prosecutions, which observers say is based on political rather than practical reasons.

US President George W Bush has said the court would infringe United States sovereignty and could lead to politically-motivated prosecutions.

Impending deadline

The ICC is due to come into existence on 1 July and the mandate for the Bosnia peacekeeping operations expires at 0000 (0400 GMT) on 30 June.

With the deadline looming Security Council members met twice on Friday but failed to reach a compromise.

The US stands alone in the council

"We haven't resolved anything. The differences still remain... Our concerns are still there. They haven't been addressed," US Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham said after the second meeting.

The Security Council is expected to continue discussions up until the last possible minute, in an effort to keep the Bosnian mission going and avoid what diplomats are referring to as a "train-crash scenario".

Refusing to budge

The BBC's correspondent at the UN, Mike Fox, says America's key allies, Britain and France, have led the way in saying that they cannot support anything which would undermine their commitments to the ICC.

But our correspondent says the US is playing hardball and refusing to budge.

After discussions on Friday, one European diplomat told our correspondent that it was 14 against one in the Security Council, with the US standing alone.

Later on Friday, experts will tell the Security Council what will happen if the US carries through on its threat to veto the Bosnian mission.

Phased withdrawal

UN staff, including 46 US officers, are training Bosnians to take over full policing duties.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told journalists that it could cause significant problems in a country still recovering from years of civil war.

"The risk, of course, is that a sudden, abrupt termination of the UN mission without a careful handover to the new mission could cause a gap, and I don't know whether this Bosnian police force is ready to stand on its own two feet alone," he said.

The UN had planned that its 3000-strong force would start a phased handover to European officers, who would take over at the beginning of next year.