Bosnian Serb parliament to meet on Saturday

The newly elected Bosnian Serb parliament, will hold its first session on Saturday, meeting the deadline set by international mediators.

For the first time, supporters of the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, whose arrest has been demanded on war-crimes charges, will not have an overall majority.

Hardliners had originally wanted the meeting postponed until mid-January and held in their mountain stronghold of Pale, outside Sarajevo.

The decision to meet in the border town of Bijeljina will strengthen the hand of the current Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic.

Most delegates who support her would have refused on security grounds to travel to Pale.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service