HIGHLIGHTS: U.S. Threatens to Block U.N.-Backed Missions|| ICC Becomes a Reality Despite U.S. Threats||NATO Ambassdors Meet in Brussels to Consider Implications for S-FOR in Bosnia|| STORY: The birth of the first global war crimes court was overshadowed by a U.S. threat to United Nations peacekeeping missions, but senior officials tried to play down fears such missions could collapse. (Read photo caption)

The future of the U.N. mission in Bosnia was questioned on Monday as Washington demanded immunity from prosecution for its forces by the new International Criminal Court and threatened to block U.N.-backed missions if its demands were not met.

But Bosnia's International High Representative Paddy Ashdown told BBC television late on Monday the mission would not collapse even if the United States did withdraw, although its work would be made harder.

On Sunday Washington threatened to pull out of a U.N. police-training taskforce in Bosnia, throwing into doubt the future of a much larger NATO-led peace force in the former Yugoslav republic in which the United States has 2,500 soldiers.

But Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S. ambassador to the International War Crimes Commission, told Newsnight a solution was possible as work was going on behind the scenes.

In Sarajevo, U.S. ambassador Clifford Bond assured Bosnians U.S. troops would remain in the 18,000-strong Stabilization Force (SFOR).

The ICC, which President Bush has firmly repudiated, was launched on Monday in The Hague to handle complaints of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes worldwide.

The Security Council refused the U.S. immunity demand, and the United States on Sunday vetoed a resolution extending the mandate of the U.N. police mission for six months. The United Nations now has until midnight Wednesday night to find a deal.

Bosnia warned it would have no means to plug the gap if the 1,600-strong international police force was pulled out. The country is due to hold a general election in October in which a high standard of policing is likely to be crucial.

In Brussels, European diplomats condemned the U.S. hard line, saying it could jolt the war-scarred Balkans.

"I deeply regret this dramatic step that threatens U.N. peace operations in general," Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said in a statement on the day his country assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana accused the United States of taking hostage the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia but said he hoped a deal could be reached over the spat.

Ambassadors from NATO's 19 nations met in emergency session to consider the implications for SFOR. The Security Council resolution up for renewal also authorizes member states to continue contributing to SFOR.

Renewal of the police mission is the first test of the U.S. campaign to keep its troops out of the reach of the new court.

Washington says the court could infringe on national sovereignty and lead to politically motivated prosecutions of its officials or soldiers working abroad.

Human rights groups hail the court as global justice's biggest milestone since an international military tribunal in Nuremberg tried Nazi leaders after World War Two.

PHOTO CAPTION

An exterior view of the world's first permanent criminal court which is located in a former KPN telecom building in the Hague, the Netherlands, July 1, 2002. The birth of the first global war crimes court was overshadowed by a U.S. threat to United Nations peacekeeping missions, but fears that U.S. troops would pull out of Bosnia appeared unfounded. (Michael Kooren/Reuter