Del Ponte to stay in office until year's end?

Del Ponte to stay in office until year's end?

Kavran said Del Ponte was waiting for officials in Switzerland and the UN Security Council to approve her longer term.

She had been the Swiss attorney general before being appointed to the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

Del Ponte had planned to step down in September after eight years in the post.

The New York Times, citing unnamed UN officials, reported Thursday that Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz is expected to replace Del Ponte.

Kavran said she had not heard of a decision on Del Ponte's successor, who must be nominated by the UN secretary-general and approved by the Security Council.

Brammertz quit earlier this month as deputy prosecutor for investigations at the International Criminal Court, a permanent war crimes tribunal also based in The Hague.

Brammertz currently is leading a UN commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He is scheduled to leave the commission on December 31.

In a speech Thursday to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Del Ponte did not mention her possible successor.

Del Ponte has led the Yugoslav tribunal's team of prosecutors since August 1999. Among those she prosecuted was former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, who died in his cell last year before his four-year genocide trial could be completed.

She has spent recent years unsuccessfully pressing Serbia to arrest and hand over the alleged architects of the Bosnian war, Radovan Karadžić and Gen. Ratko Mladić.

Both have been in hiding for more than a decade after being charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.

The tribunal is being pressed by the UN to close its doors in 2010.