For the first time a multi-ethnic team will represent Bosnia-Herzegovina at this year's Olympic Games in Sydney.

The International Olympic Committee says the move is the result of months of negotiations with Bosnia's sporting authorities.

It won't be the first time that Bosnia-Herzegovina has competed in the Olympics. There was a Bosnian team at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano and also at the summer games in Atlanta four years ago.

But in both cases they were exclusively made up of Bosnian Muslim competitors.

For the first time at Sydney, Bosnian Croatian and Bosnian Serb athletes will also take part.

All three members of Bosnia's multi-ethnic presidency have approved the provisional composition of the team.

Olympic standards

Nineteen athletes have been selected, but they will have to achieve Olympic qualifying standards if they are actually to take part in Sydney.

The International Olympic Committee has taken a special interest in sport in Bosnia in recent years.

The country's capital, Sarajevo, hosted the Winter Olympics in 1984. But the Games' main venue, the Zetra Hall, was severely damaged during the Bosnian conflict.

Donations from a number of organisations, including the IOC, funded the rebuilding of the hall.

The hall was reopened in 1999 in a ceremony led by IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, and Rasim Gacanovic, Sarajevo's mayor.