Key facts about Bosnia-Hercegovina:

GEOGRAPHY: Bosnia-Hercegovina is a mountainous Balkan republic which, apart from a 20-kilometre (12-mile) coastline, is landlocked. Ridges of the Dinaric Alps rising to more than 1,800 metres (6,000 feet) occupy most of the territory, with restricted lowland valleys in the north. It has a continental climate, though Hercegovina in the south is more Mediterranean.

The country is bordered by Croatia in the north and west, and by Serbia-Montenegro to the east.

AREA: 51,129 square kilometres (19,741 square miles).

POPULATION: 3.8 million. Muslim: 40 percent, Serb (Orthodox): 31 percent, Croat (Catholic): around 10 percent. According to UN estimates about one million Bosnians remain displaced by the war, with about two-thirds located inside the country.

CAPITAL: Sarajevo, now almost completely populated by Muslims.

LANGUAGE: Serbo-Croat, with two written forms: Roman alphabet is used among the Muslims (Bosniaks) and Croats, Cyrillic script among the Serbs.

RELIGION: Sunni Islam 40 percent, Serbian Orthodox 31 percent, Roman Catholic 10 percent, with a Protestant minority.

RECENT HISTORY: In March 1992, following the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, a referendum boycotted by the Serbs voted in favour of independence. The Serbs, encouraged and supplied by Serbia, seized around 70 percent of the country, killing or expelling Muslims and Croats in a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" despite the deployment of UN peacekeepers. In early 1994 the Muslims and Croats agreed under US pressure to federate, and in October 1995 a ceasefire with the Serbs came into effect. The US-brokered Dayton accords called for one country divided into Muslim-Croat and Serb entities, overseen by an international meditor.

More than 200,000 people are believed to have been killed during the three and a half years of fighting.

The Muslim-Croat Federation was allotted 51 percent of Bosnian territory, with 49 percent going to the Serb entity of Republika Srpska.

NATO-led troops took over from UN forces to police the agreement. In December 2004 they were replaced by the European Union peacekeeping force (EUFOR) numbering around 7,000 troops.

POLITICAL SITUATION: The UN High Representative for Bosnia, responsible for overseeing civil affairs under the Dayton peace accord, has considerable powers including the right to impose legislation by decree. The office is currently held by Paddy Ashdown of Britain.

The country has a tripartite presidency, whose members rotate in eight-month terms as chairman. Croat Ivo Miro Jovic is currently serving as chairman. The two other members are Muslim Sulejman Tihic and Serb Borislav Paravac.

Under a reform accord agreed in 2002 each of the three communities is guaranteed fair representation in the institutions of both entities.

ECONOMY: Following the economic devastation of the war the country remains one of the poorest in the Balkans, with average per capita income of 1,100 dollars (1,000 euros) in 2004. The official unemployment rate is around 40 percent, but is probably around 20 percent if unreported activities are taken into account, according to economists.

The economy remains dependent on foreign aid, of which about 5.7 billion euros have been received since 1995.

CURRENCY: A national currency, known as the konvertibilna marka, went into circulation in 1998, pegged at par with the former German mark.

DEFENCE: The country has a total about 18,600 soldiers. The Republika Srpska has some 6,000 troops and the Muslim-Croat Federation around 12,600.

In July the country's Croat, Muslim and Serb leaders agreed to establish a single army by 2007.

In October Bosnian Serb MPs approved unification of police forces, paving the way for opening of talks on a stabilisation agreement with the European Union, seen as the first step towards membership in the bloc.

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