* Bosnia submits request for NATO membership plan * Stalled reforms could delay process BRUSSELS, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Bosnia took a first step on Friday towards joining NATO, but membership of the Western military alliance could take years while the Balkan country carries out required reforms. Bosnian officials submitted a request for a membership action plan to NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He welcomed the application but said the country had to meet NATO standards in areas such as democracy and military effectiveness. "Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to continue and even step up its reforms including when it comes to the democratic institutions of the country," Rasmussen told a news conference. Bosnia is a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme, a platform for countries hoping to join the alliance. It has to make progress on a wide range of reforms in defence, political and other sectors before it is offered a formal membership plan by NATO states. "Our country is determined to have the necessary reforms that will lead us into Euro-Atlantic integration. And there is political readiness to do so," Zeljko Komsic, chairman of Bosnia's inter-ethnic presidency, told the news conference. "Whatever NATO is asking of us in order to join, it all requires a series of tasks and some compromises. We simply have to fulfil them if we want to become a NATO member," Komsic said. A key obstacle will be the deep divisions between the country's Serbs and its Muslim and Croat communities over reforming the constitution. The constitution is enshrined in the Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-95 war by splitting the country into two highly autonomous regions, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb Republic, linked via a weak central government. There is no agreement among Serbs, Muslims and Croats on how to proceed with constitutional reform. The Serbs stick firmly to the Dayton formula which gave them a high degree of autonomy, while Muslims and Croats would prefer a more centralised state. A NATO official said an offer of a membership plan could be a long way off. "This is a request that has to be considered by allies. Just because you submit a request, it doesn't mean that you will be invited," the official said. "For example Montenegro submitted a request two years ago and they still have not been invited." Balkan neighbours Albania and Croatia were admitted to NATO earlier this year, while other Balkan hopefuls Macedonia and Montenegro are at various stages of the admission process. All the Balkan states want to join the European Union as well. (Reporting by Bate Felix and David Brunnstrom)
Albania biology students attach an electronic transmitter chip onto a sea turtle's body, to locate its movements as part of a study of its breeding habits, at Patok Beach in northwestern ...
