Jolie to star in romantic film set in Bosnian war: UNHCR

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has announced she is to star in a romantic film to be shot in the Balkans, as she made a surprise visit to Sarajevo.

"Upon leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday, Angelina Jolie stated that she will be in the region working on a film this fall," said the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, for whom Jolie works as a goodwill ambassador.

"The film is a love story set during the Bosnian war of 1992-1995, focusing on a couple who meet on the eve of the war and the effect the war has on their relationship," it said.

Jolie stressed that the film would not carry any political messages and added that the cast would be drawn from the different ethnic groups of the former Yugoslavia.

According to national radio, Jolie will act in the film and direct it as well.

Earlier the star called on Bosnian leaders to speed up the return of thousands of refugees from the brutal 1990s civil war.

"I hope that there'll soon be practical steps to improve these people's lives," Jolie was quoted as saying in the UNHCR statement.

Jolie - whose visit coincides with the release in Europe of her new spy thriller "Salt" - last visited Bosnia Hercegovina in April with her husband, movie heartthrob Brad Pitt.

She hailed the adoption by the Bosnian parliament in June of a new strategy for returning all internally displaced people in the country by 2014, the UNHCR said.

"The political leaders have shown a spirit of compromise in getting this far. Now it needs a little more urgency," added Jolie.

Jolie also met the Muslim and Croat representatives of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Haris Silajdzic and Zeljko Komsic, to discuss the refugee issue, Silajdzic's cabinet said in a statement.

The 1992-1995 war left 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million refugees and displaced persons in Bosnia. Some 113,000 people are still displaced or unable to return to their homes, according to the UNHCR.