BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Canada will pull out most of its 650 troops in Bosnia by October due to a scheduled transfer of the peacekeeping mission from NATO to the European Union, and the improved security situation, Canadian officials in Bosnia said Friday.

NATO will hand over command of a 7,500-member peacekeeping force in Bosnia to the European Union at the beginning of 2005.

Canada will keep 85 troops in the country until the end of the year, a statement from the Canadian Forces said. The country's two camps in western Bosnia will be closed, and the 85 will serve in the multinational headquarters in Banja Luka and Sarajevo.

"The decrease and the closing of the camps are also result of the improved situation in Bosnia and the efforts of Bosnian people and their leaders to build a permanent peace," the statement said.

More than 60,000 NATO-led troops from more than 40 countries were deployed to Bosnia in late 1995 to enforce the Dayton peace agreement, which ended the 3½ yearlong war between the country's Serbs, Muslims and Croats.