Sarajevo - Bosnian lawmakers Wednesday gave final approval to new laws on the divided country's police forces, paving the way for closer integration with the European Union.

The vote in the upper chamber, the House of Peoples, was 10-4. The lower house passed the reform last week.

Although the EU insisted for years that the reform should unite the police forces fragmented along the lines of Bosnia's ethnic entities - the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb-run Srpska Republic - the new law has no immediate effect on that division.

But the compromise is expected to be enough for the EU's executive European Commission to approve a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Bosnia within weeks.

The legislation envisages the creation of seven central-government bodies to coordinate the country's police forces within a year after constitutional reform - an overhaul that is not expected in the near future.