"SFOR will remain deployed in Bosnia. No delegation, including the United States, has indicated a desire to leave SFOR... SFOR will continue its work," spokesman Yves Brodeur said after a meeting of NATO ambassadors to discuss the U.S. position.

Washington on Sunday vetoed a six-month renewal of a U.N. police mission in Bosnia after other U.N. Security Council members rejected Washington’s demand to make the mission immune from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The U.S. is one of five permanent Security Council members with veto power - along with Britain, France, Russia and China, CNN reports.

The veto's immediate effect was to bring the 1,536-strong police-training mission in Bosnia known as UNMIBH to an end when its mandate expired Monday, although the United States granted a 72-hour extension to enable it to disband smoothly. The United Nations now has until Thursday morning to find a deal.

It also cast doubt over the future of the 19,000-strong SFOR. Although SFOR does not legally require a council mandate, some of the 19 contributing NATO members have indicated they will withdraw their troops without one.

SFOR, deployed in Bosnia in 1995 to maintain peace and security in following the country's 1992-95 war, comprises 19,000 troops, including some 3,300 U.S. servicemen and women.

The International Criminal Court, which will try war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, opened its doors in The Hague on Monday despite opposition from the United States, which fears its nationals could be targeted for politically-motivated trial.

CNN reports that Washington objects to the idea that Americans could be subject to the court's jurisdiction if a crime is committed in a country that has ratified the treaty. The U.S. expressed its intention not to support the court in a letter to the U.N. in May.

Supporters of the Court expressed dismay at U.S. actions.

"History, I believe, will record the actions of the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush to wreck U.N. peacekeeping and the International Criminal Court as one of the most shameful lows in global U.S. leadership," said William Pace, head of the International Coalition for a Criminal Court, according to CNN.

French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte said there was no need "to kill off" the Bosnian mission and that the U.S. should simply withdraw the 46 U.S. police officers serving in it and allow the mission to continue.

Bosnia's International High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, spoke to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell about his concerns, warning that Bosnia would not have the means to plug the gap if the international police force was pulled out, reports news agencies.

"He said he hoped the U.S. Administration would not do anything that placed at risk the huge progress toward peace and stability" that Bosnia has achieved since the 1992-95 war, Ashdown's office reported.

Earlier, the U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia, Clifford Bond, said its troops serving with SFOR would remain.

"U.S. troops will stay in Bosnia. The mandate of SFOR is based on the Dayton Peace Accords and the decisions of the Peace Implementation Council," Bond told reporters.

"Our strategic commitment to the Balkans and to Bosnia remains rock solid. U.S. troops will remain in Bosnia," Bond said.

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, in an effort to assure allies of the U.S.’s role, said: "The United States has contributed and will continue to contribute to maintaining peace and security in the Balkans and around the globe.”

"But we will not ask them [U.S. personnel] to accept the additional risk of politicized prosecutions before a court whose jurisdiction over our people the government of the United States does not accept."