Bosnian Muslims have voted down a bid to put a Serb mayor in control of Srebrenica for the first time since the massacre of 8000 Muslims in the town by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995.

Srebrenica was the site of the worst mass killing on European soil since the Second World War, when Bosnian Serb forces killed Muslim men and boys near the end of the country's 1992-95 war.

Barely 15% of the town's 27,600 pre-war Muslim residents, known as Bosniaks, have returned, leaving Serbs in the majority. Many of the others are scattered across Bosnia and around the world.

A Bosnian Serb party, which disputes a United Nations ruling that the Srebrenica killings constituted genocide, launched a bid to win the post of mayor in the local election on October 7.

Many Bosniaks saw the prospect of a Serb mayor as a threat to their efforts to keep the memory of the crime alive.

Camil Durakovic, the Bosniak candidate, led the drive to register some 2000 absent voters, and a final vote count at the weekend showed him to be the victor.

"If it wasn't for this registration of voters, I would have never won," Mr Durakovic said. "From today, I'll be the mayor of all citizens of Srebrenica."

A Serb coalition has complained of vote irregularities.