The UN Security Council has decided to split the job of chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, allowing a new prosecutor to take charge of cases stemming from the 1994 Rwanda genocide while she focuses on the Balkans.

　　The council scheduled a vote yesterday on a resolution that would authorize the Rwanda tribunal to have its own prosecutor and set out a timetable for completing the work of both the Rwanda and Yugoslav tribunals by 2010.

　　The US draft resolution says the council is convinced that the tribunals "can most efficiently and expeditiously meet their respective responsibilities if each has its own prosecutor."

　　Since September 1999, Del Ponte has been responsible for trying those accused of major war crimes during the Balkan wars in the 1990s and leaders of the genocide in Rwanda that killed more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu political moderates.

　　Many countries argue that the Rwandan tribunal, based in Arusha, Tanzania, has not made as much progress as the Yugoslav one.

　　A variety of reasons have been cited, from bureaucratic inefficiency to friction with the Rwandan government, staff shortages and insufficient attention from Del Ponte's staff based in The Hague, Netherlands.

　　The government lobbyed for a new prosecutor.

　　With Del Ponte's contract set to expire on September 15, Annan recommended last month that she be given a new four-year contract to focus entirely on the Yugoslav tribunal while a new prosecutor is chosen to concentrate on Rwanda.

　　Del Ponte had argued before the Security Council and Annan that she could do both jobs, but Annan stuck by his recommendation to split the job.

　　Del Ponte's office has clashed with the Rwandan government, notably over the court's efforts to investigate abuses by members of the Tutsi-led rebels who stopped the genocide, took power, and still control the government. The draft resolution would call on all governments to assist in the investigations of the Rwandan Patriotic Army, headed by President Paul Kagame.

　　The draft resolution calls for both tribunals to focus on prosecuting leaders, and to transfer cases involving intermediate- and lower-ranking suspects to national courts, which need to be strengthened.

　　It says all investigations must be completed by the end of 2004, all initial trials must be finished by the end of 2008, and all work of the tribunals must be wrapped up in 2010.

　　The draft resolution urges member states to consider imposing measures such as travel bans and freezing assets of anyone indicted by the tribunals.