UNITED NATIONS The international peace envoy in Bosnia says challenges to Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty and territorial integrity are on the rise, threatening the peace deal that has held the former-Yugoslav republic together since 1995.    

Valentin Inzko, the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Security Council, said on uesday that senior Serb officials are increasingly spewing anti-state, secessionist rhetoric challenging the peace agreement and threatening to degrade or abolish state structures.

Bosnia has been governed by a weak central government since the 1992-1995 war that killed an estimated 100,000 people and split the country into two autonomous regions divided along ethnic lines.

A 2010 election only brought a political stalemate as leaders from the different ethnic groups failed to form national government. The impasse was broken in 2011 but important divisions remain.—AP