Bosnian Serb police said today they had detained a number of people suspected of posing a security threat to a visit by Pope John Paul to Banja Luka in the Serb part of Bosnia on Sunday.
"Last night police searched a number of houses in Banja Luka region and detained a number of individuals who could endanger the visit of Pope John Paul," the Bosnian Serb Republic's Interior Ministry spokesman, Mr Zoran Glusac, said.
He said the detainees were currently being interrogated and declined to give any further comments.
The Bosnian Serb SRNA news agency said the men were members of an ultra-nationalist "Chetnik" movement known for a series of incidents. Two years ago, a ceremony for the reconstruction of an Ottoman-era mosque was marred by rioting hardliners who killed one person and injured dozens.
Mr Glusac also said posters and leaflets displaying anti-Pope slogans had appeared in Banja Luka overnight and the police were trying to track down those responsible.
The posters referred to the World War Two massacre of Serbs committed by Croatian Ustashe troops, allies of the Nazis who were based at the monastery where the pope will hold an open-air mass on Sunday during his 10-hour visit.
Pope John Paul's 101st foreign trip takes him to Orthodox Serb-dominated Bosnia to beatify a Catholic layman and visit the war-decimated Catholic community. This will be his second visit to Bosnia after one in 1997 to the capital, Sarajevo.