By Olja Stanic BANJA LUKA, Bosnia, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Bosnia's Serb Republic will not seek independence yet despite the precedent created by Kosovo's secession from Serbia, but slowly continue to strengthen its autonomy, officials said on Wednesday. Hardline Bosnian Serb nationalists have called on their government to declare "self-determination" and a referendum of secession from Bosnia after Serbia's Albanian-majority province said it was breaking away at the weekend. The ruling SNSD (Alliance of Independent Social Democrats) said Serbs should be assured it was working to strengthen the rights of the Serb Republic against Western calls for more of its powers to be ceded to Bosnia's central government. "The transfer of powers to Sarajevo has been halted," it said in a statement, and the party would continue on this path until it had "major constitutional and long-term effects". The Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-95 war split the Balkan country into the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation, each with a high degree of autonomy. Muslims and Croats want a stronger central state able to lead the country into the European Union, but Serbs are keener on autonomy and closer links with their wartime ally Serbia. Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said those requesting secession manipulated Serb emotions over Kosovo, which is considered the religious heartland of the Serb nation. "I am not a man without emotions either, who wouldn't want many things immediately, but some of them are not realistic," he told the Glas Srpske daily in a Wednesday interview. "We have to work slowly, rationally, wisely. We can do more harm than good from rushed moves." He said he had threatened to push for a secession referendum if the survival of the Serb Republic was jeopardised, "which it was not with the independence of Kosovo". "The Serb Republic will be additionally strengthened by the independence (of Kosovo) achieved in this way," Dodik said, a clear indication that the Bosnian Serbs consider Kosovo's secession helps justify their own breakaway. International peace officials in Bosnia have repeatedly dismissed any link between Bosnia and Kosovo. "Some irresponsible individuals will try to artificially link Bosnia and Kosovo. Such requests will be firmly rejected," said a spokesman for Bosnia's international peace overseer, Miroslav Lajcak. "Bosnia-Herzegovina is not an open issue." (Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Ellie Tzortzi and Richard Meares)
A policeman walks past the damaged Slovenian embassy building after riots in Belgrade February 18, 2008. Kosovo Albanians declared independence on Sunday, confidently awaiting Western recognition for their state despite the ...
