NATO decided in principle yesterday that an alliance led force of between 25,000 and 30,000 troops would stay in Bosnia next year to cement the country's fragile peace.
Ambassadors from the 16 member nations ordered their military commanders to prepare for the reduced force to remain after the mandate of the 60,000 strong NATO led peace Implementation Force (Ifor) ends on December 20th.
The final go ahead for the follow on force will be given early next month, when NATO foreign and defence ministers meet in Brussels and after the UN Security Council has agreed a resolution approving it.
"The North Atlantic Council (the NATO ambassadors) today directed detailed contingency planning for a multinational Stabilisation Force, significantly reduced in size, to replace Ifor, "a NATO spokesman said.
The move followed the announcement on Friday by President Clinton that Washington was prepared to commit 8 500 troops to a new force to remain in Bosnia until June 1998 at the latest.
NATO officials said the US ambassador to the alliance had outlined proposals on the mandate for the Stabilisation Force, informally called SFOR, including the length of time it would remain.
A NATO official said all countries which had not previously committed themselves to providing troops did so at yesterday's meeting.
Norway had offered one battalion and Britain had said its force would be "substantial".
Germany has said it is prepared to send 3,000 soldiers, the first use of German troops in a potential combat role outside the NATO area since the end of the second World War. France is said to be prepared to commit around 2,500 troops.
. Defence ministers from the Western European Union meeting in Ostend, Belgium, will today discuss the defence grouping's growing links with NATO and to see how the WEU can help in Africa's troubled Great Lakes region.