The senior international representative in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Wolfgang Petritsch, has imposed a law on state border control after the country's multi-ethnic parliament repeatedly failed to pass it.

Mr Petritsch blamed the Bosnian Serb delegates for obstructing the law, designed to stop cross-border smuggling.

Correspondents say many Serb leaders in Bosnia still want a Serb state, separate from the Croat-Muslim part of the country.

They say the Bosnian Serbs are particularly opposed to a border between their republic and Serbia.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service