HIGHLIGHTS: Washington Wants Blanket Immunity for its Peacekeepers from International Criminal Court||Annan Describes U.S. Fears of Vulnerability to the Court as Over-exaggerated||EU Describes ICC (International Criminal Court) as the Most Important Advance in International Rule of Law Since the Establishment of the UN|| STORY: The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday kept alive a U.N. police training mission in Bosnia after Washington backed away from a threat to close it down unless the council shielded U.S. peacekeepers from the new global war crimes court.
Facing a midnight deadline for the mission's renewal, the United States joined the 14 other council members in extending its mandate through July 15.

Washington had earlier threatened a veto if its peacekeepers were not granted blanket immunity from the International Criminal Court, which came into force this week in The Hague, Netherlands.

Washington agreed to defer its campaign after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Secretary of State Colin Powell that "the whole system of United Nations peacekeeping is being put at risk" over what he said were exaggerated U.S. fears of vulnerability to the court.

Many world leaders had also angrily accused Washington of abandoning the people of Bosnia after playing a central role in ending the Balkan state's bloody three-year war that gave rise to the term "ethnic cleansing."

And European Union states and others had attacked the United States for trying to undermine the court, created to pursue the most heinous wrongdoing around the world including genocide and war crimes. (Read photo caption)

'IMPORTANT ADVANCE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW'

"We think the ICC is the most important advance in international rule of law since the establishment of the U.N. and we are not going to allow anyone to water down our commitment to the principle," European Commissioner Chris Patten had said in Belgrade earlier on Wednesday.

Washington has threatened to shut down U.N. peacekeeping missions one by one, starting with the Bosnia mission.

Four other U.N. peacekeeping missions come up for renewal in July alone, including the U.N. mission in southern Lebanon, which polices the volatile border between Israel and Lebanon.

Shutting down that mission in a spat over the new court's powers could have serious security implications for close U.S. ally Israel, council envoys warned.

The U.S. administration has refused to have any dealings with the court, leaving it without power on U.S. territory.

But President Bush worries a politically motivated prosecutor could grab a U.S. official working in a country that had ratified the treaty establishing the court, such as Bosnia.

Earlier in the day, the United States had shown a new willingness to bargain with its fellow council members on its demands, after earlier clinging to a hard line. Envoys said it had picked up some support during a long day of debate.

But in the end, support fell far short of the needed nine votes and time simply ran out, diplomats said.

Washington had pushed a proposal that would have given 12 months' immunity for crimes by peacekeepers from any country that had not yet ratified the court treaty. That would give accused peacekeepers ample time to return home to the jurisdiction of their national courts.

After 12 months, the court could pursue a peacekeeper only after a vote in the Security Council, where Washington has veto power along with Britain, France, Russia and China.

But many council envoys objected that the U.S. plan would let the council amend the court treaty through a back door.

Earlier on Wednesday, the European Union had offered to take control of the Bosnia police mission as soon as it could to prevent its collapse. The EU had intended to take over the mission at the end of this year in any case.

The strategically vital 18,000-strong NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Bosnia, which includes 2,500 U.S. troops, dwarfs the mission in question --a 1,500-member police training program that includes 46 American police officers --.
But U.S. officials said this force would not be affected by their drive for protection from the war crimes court.

PHOTO CAPTION

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana (L) and Bosnia's International High Representative Paddy Ashdown hold a joint news conference at EU headquarters in Brussels July 3, 2002. The EU said it stood ready to take early control of the U.N. police mission in Bosnia if last-minute talks with the United States failed to secure an accord on its future. (Thierry Roge/Reuters)