Sarajevo - Bosnian forensic experts recovered the remains of some 50 people war crime victims killed and thrown into a ravine 17 years ago, local reports quoted an official as saying.

The remains brought up from a 200-metre abyss on Vlasic, a mountain 150 kilometres northwest of Sarajevo, are to be sent to the Institute for Missing Persons for an attempt at identification.

"We have, mostly incomplete, remains of at least 46 people. Now we will continue with DNA analysis and anthropological tests," Amor Masovic from the Institute told local media.

The victims are presumed to be Muslims rounded up by Bosnian Serb forces and executed on August 21, 1992. Some 200 people are believed to have been killed in the area at that time.

The site was divulged by a former Bosnian Serb policeman in July, after he was arrested and put on a war crimes trial by Bosnian authorities.

Bosnia was the site of a brutal ethnic conflict, pitting the majority Muslims and Croats against the Serbs, who had the support of Slobodan Milosevic's regime in Belgrade.

The war ended in late 1995, after more than three years, through a US-brokered peace deal which effectively divided Bosnia along ethnic lines. (dpa)