The combined unit is the first -- and only one -- of its kind so far, more than a decade after the end of the war.

It spent more than two weeks in this remote, mountainous part of the Balkan country's north, surviving cold that slumped to minus 17 C (one degree F) while taking the temperature of Bosnia's volatile ethnic mix.

Most of the 12 men had never been on skis but under the guidance of European-led peacekeepers they learned two things -- skiing is not as difficult as they thought and making friends from erstwhile enemies is even easier.

"The war is forgotten. We get along so well, as if we were together for years," said 36-year-old Croat soldier Dragan Rako.

His views were echoed by new friend Dragan Ivkovic, who until the beginning of the year was a member of the Bosnian Serb army.

"Everything is great. It is better than I had expected," said the ethnic Serb sergeant.

"If everyone shared our opinions, the future (of Bosnia) would be better, but we are only a small group," he added, referring to divisions that still hamper efforts to put behind the legacy of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

Authorities agreed to unite Muslim, Serb and Croat forces into a single army by the end of 2007, and as a first step on January 1 put them under a joint defence ministry.

"Your army is too small to retain the divisions of the past," said the commander of EU peacekeepers in northwestern Bosnia, Brigadier Marc Elcomb.

The Bosnian conflict, triggered by the breakup of the old Yugoslav federation, was the worst to hit Europe since the end of World War II, claiming as many as 200,000 lives and leaving homeless about 2.2 million people, or half the country's population.

When war broke out, Bosnian Serbs fought against Bosnian Croats and Muslims. But in 1993, former Croat and Muslim allies turned against each other in a bitter conflict that dragged on for 11 months.

A 6,300-strong European-led peacekeeping force remains in the country providing deterrence and monitoring compliance with the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war.

The new rescue team, wearing white suits over their uniforms, use their skis and jackets as a makeshift stretcher to carry a fellow soldier feigning injuries in a smooth training exercise that draws applause from their seniors.

"These people are former enemies. Now they are a Bosnian rescue team, they are not enemies any more," said Lieutenant-Colonel Enrique Boedecker, their Chilean trainer.

"This is indeed encouraging and a good message for Bosnian armed forces that we can work well together," said General-Major Vlado Djojic, a local commander of special operations.

The three groups, who still bear different military insignia, said they hoped their lack of tension as they trained on Knezevo's slopes will be magnified in the unified army.

"Bosnia is known to be full of surprises. What happened, happened and it is the past now. We've put the past behind us," said 31-year-old Sergeant Safet Ponjevic, a Muslim.

But not all agree. A fierce debate blaring from a radio at a nearby cafe questioned whether Bosnia can survive due to inter-ethnic hatred. Some say time will heal the war wounds, others see no hope.

Post-war Bosnia consists of two semi-independent entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The two are linked by weak central institutions each with its own parliament and government.

Critics feared the set-up might encourage separatism and nationalism and thwart efforts to stabilize the country.

The move towards unifying the army, which numbers about 12,000 troops, was seen as a sign of increasing stability, along with the military's hope to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations' Partnership for Peace program and someday become a full member of the alliance.

Another major breakthrough came in November when the European Union launched negotiations on a stabilization and association agreement with Bosnia, saying the start of the talks proved the country had come a long way since the war.

The agreement is seen as the first step on the path towards EU membership, a direction backed by the vast majority of Bosnians.

It could also build pressure to remove a major thorn in the side of the Bosnian government -- the failure to capture Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic, the two most wanted men by the UN warcrimes court in The Hague, on the run now for more than 10 years.

Ponjevic said he had one message for Muslims, Serbs and Croats, who make up respectively 48 percent, 37 percent and 14 percent of Bosnia's population of four million.

"Forget about the past! Some can forget, some cannot, but I hope that everything will be as it used to be before the war, for Bosnia cannot exist without its three people -- Serbs, Muslims and Croats," he said.

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