Biljana Plavsic: defiant

Bosnian Serbs Vote to Expel Plavsic

The vote took place at a meeting in the capital, Pale, which was attended by 55 members of the SDS leadership committee.

A statement carried by the Bosnian Serb news agency, SRNA, said the vote was unanimous. It said the leadership committee had also repeated its call for Mrs Plavsic to resign as president and hand over control to the vice-president.

Correspondents say this is the latest move in a power struggle between Mrs Plavsic and SDS hardliners, who are allies of her predecessor, the indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic.

Mrs Plavsic has accused Mr Karadzic of corruption and has said she will order the army to arrest him if necessary. Her opponents are refusing to recognise her recent decision to dissolve the Bosnian Serb assembly.

The current crisis is said to be creating intense instability in the Bosnian Serb republic. The instability deepened following the recent move by NATO-led forces to go after two suspected war criminals.