SARAJEVO (AFP) - The martial arts legend Bruce Lee is to be honoured with a statue in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar, as a symbolic protest against ethnic division, local authorities said.

Bruce Lee was chosen as a hero that all ethnic groups could relate to, in a city that was nearly destroyed during the fierce fighting between Croats and Muslims during Bosnia's 1992-95 war and that remains bitterly divided.

City authorities have given the green light for the statue to be built, following a proposal made two years ago by a local association, the Urban Movement of Mostar, Zdravko Culjak, head of Mostar's planning department, said.

The life-sized bronze statue of the Kung Fu cinema icon is to be placed in a city park within the next few months.