The European Union is looking at how quickly it can begin withdrawing its 6,000-plus troops from Bosnia after yesterday's elections, EU president Finland said.
EU defence ministers meeting in northern Finland hope ethnic tensions will cool and that newly elected leaders will find common ground on how to run Bosnia after next year's dismantling of the protectorate set up after the 1992-95 war.
The aim is to convert the military presence, inherited by the EU from Nato in 2004, to a more civilian one involved in lighter tasks such as policing.
"There is already quite a strong civilian element to EU operations there, so it should not be too complicated," said Finnish Defence Ministry spokesman Jyrki Iivonen.
A final decision was not due at the two-day talks in the Finnish ski resort of Levi, but it could come as early as next month, he added.
However, some at the talks, including French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, warned there should be no fast withdrawal, especially with uncertainty over the future of the breakaway Kosovo province in neighbouring Serbia.
Any wind-down in Bosnia would ease the burden on European armies already stretched by their participation in missions across the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.