Though the court’s infrastructure in The Hague won’t be in place until early next year, it can pursue crimes committed from Monday on.

In all, 74 nations have ratified the new institution, or plan to do so in the near future. That includes most members of the Security Council in New York, where Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the court as a global instrument against future atrocities.

But unlike most of its allies, Washington has withheld its support, being loathe to subject its citizens to the authority of an international body.

It fears politically motivated charges against Americans and especially wants to keep U.S. peacekeepers beyond the court’s reach. As a result, U.S. officials have threatened to shut down U.N.-authorized peacekeeping missions throughout the world until the issue is solved and immunity is granted to American soldiers and officials participating in such missions.

Bosnian mission a stumbling point

In New York on Sunday, the USA initially vetoed a Security Council resolution to extend the mission in Bosnia for another six months. Had that been the final word, the mandate would have expired today.

However, a second resolution extending the mandate until midnight on Wednesday was accepted unanimously. U.S. officials say that gives the United Nations enough time to plan for an orderly shutdown or an early shift of the mandate to the European Union.

The United States relented – to the extent it did - after Annan told the council that the Bosnians were only just "beginning to reap the fruits of the international community's assistance, after the country was ripped apart by war from 1992 to 1995."

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said that Washington had vetoed the original draft with "great regret." But he stressed that America remained a "special target" for attacks all over the world and that "we cannot have our decisions second-guessed by a court whose jurisdiction we do not recognize."

Though the United States has just 46 police officers in the Bosnia mission, its support for an extension of the mandate is vital. Germany’s justice minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin called on Washington to rethink its entire position on the international court.

She told the newspaper "Die Welt" that the purpose of the court was to replace the "law of strength" by the "strength of law."

The German defense ministry said that German soldiers in Bosnia would remain in position for the time being, but would stay in their barracks should the mandate actually expire on Wednesday.