Ireland will support Bosnia's efforts to join the European Union when it takes over the presidency of the EU next year, Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen said today

Brian Cowen met with his Bosnian counterpart, Bosnia's three-member multiethnic presidency and its international administrators in Sarajevo as part of Ireland's preparations to take over the EU's rotating presidency in 2004. Relations between Ireland and Bosnia have improved, and Ireland will support Bosnia's quest for eventual EU membership, Mr Cowen said. But he said Bosnians first must make sweeping improvements to their emerging democracy and wrecked economy. Mr Cowen, who is also visiting Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia, met Bosnia's top international administrator, Lord Ashdown, who briefed him on progress in developing the rule of law, combating criminal networks and promoting economic reform and institution-building in Bosnia. Lord Ashdown said Ireland could serve as a useful model for Bosnia. EU membership is considered to be at least a decade out of Bosnia's grasp. The country is still rebuilding after its 1992-95 war, which killed at least 250,000 people and drove another one million from their homes.