BRUSSELS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The powerful post of Bosnia's peace overseer is likely to be extended for a year from July, delaying plans to hand the reins to local officials, a spokesman for the current office holder said on Monday.

The extension of the mandate of the Office of the High Representative is expected to be agreed on Tuesday by Bosnia's Peace Implementation Council, said the spokesman for German Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who is due to step down on June 30.

"There appears to be a consensus that the mandate will be extended for a year," Chris Bennett said. "The terms will be discussed at this meeting as well as the decision itself."

The post, set up to oversee implementation of the Dayton peace agreement ending the 1992-95 war and giving the holder powers to sack officials and impose laws, had been due for abolition after June 30.

However, Schwarz-Schilling said last month he would argue against scrapping it, amid concerns that an imminent decision on the future of the breakaway province of Kosovo in neighbouring Serbia could raise ethnic tensions in Bosnia.

Bosnian leaders also failed last week to break a year-long deadlock over unification of police forces, a condition for establishing closer ties with the European Union.

The EU wants Bosnia to have its 16,000 policemen, now divided into 15 separate police forces, integrated into a single structure that would be politically unbiased and operate across the Balkan country without artificial boundaries.

The main obstacle is opposition from the autonomous Bosnian Serb republic to the planned abolition of its police force. Police of the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation, the two autonomous regions of Bosnia created under the 1995 Dayton peace treaty, are distinct forces.

The Peace Implementation Council, which was to begin its meeting in Brussels on Monday and hold talks with Bosnian leaders on Tuesday, includes Balkan, EU and Middle Eastern states as well as the United States and Canada.

They are due to discuss Bosnia's reform agenda, including reforms needed to conclude a so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, the first rung on the long ladder to membership.

AlertNet news is provided by