Serbs baulk in talks

Talks on Bosnian police reform, a European Union condition for starting talks on closer ties, have broken up over the Serb refusal to accept a nationwide inter-ethnic structure, a top Western official says.

The talks, sponsored by the international community, collapsed over opposition to a force that would operate across the line dividing the Balkan country into autonomous Muslim-Croat and Serb halves, said peace overseer Paddy Ashdown.