U.S. President Barack Obama has extended the national emergency for the Western Balkans for one more year.

The White House said in a press release the act was passed due to unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

"These threats are constituted by the actions of persons engaged in, or assisting, sponsoring, or supporting extremist violence in the Republic of Macedonia and elsewhere in the Western Balkans region, or acts obstructing implementation of the Dayton Accords in Bosnia or United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 of June 10, 1999, in Kosovo. Because the actions of persons threatening the peace and international stabilization efforts in the Western Balkans continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, the national emergency declared on June 26, 2001, and the measures adopted on that date and thereafter to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond June 26, 2011. Therefore, I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency with respect to the Western Balkans", says President Obama in the press release.