The 15.5 tonnes of TNT explosive with a starting price of 0.45 dollars (0.40 euros) per kilo were offered for sale.

The NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia "will closely monitor" the auction, spokesman Sarto LeBlanc told AFP.

A Bosnian Serb defense ministry company was implicated last year in a breach of the UN arms embargo on Iraq selling spare parts for aircraft.

The Bosnian Serb defense ministry on Saturday offered for auction a huge array of army surplus weapons including 105 tanks, 42,048 infantry weapons and 98 artillery weapons such as howitzers and cannons.

It is also planning to auction 68 air defense weapons, 21 air defense missiles, as well as over a million mine parts and more than 13 million munitions.

SFOR is to verify if the potential buyer is a registered arms dealer before giving its approval.

A Bosnian Serb defence ministry official said the 6,600-strong Bosnian Serb army had a deadline to sell all mine and weapons surpluses by the end of 2003.

Otherwise the weapons will have to be destroyed, the official said.

After the 1992-95 war in the former Yugoslav republic Bosnia was split into two semi-independent entities -- the Serb-run Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation, each wit its own army.

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