A bronze statue of martial arts legend Bruce Lee was unveiled in the ethnically divided city of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Saturday, a day before a second statue of him is unveiled in Hong Kong to mark his 65th birthday.

The life-size 1.68 meter statue depicts the Chinese-American kung fu cinema icon in a typical defensive fighting position as a symbolic protest against ethnic division, said reports reaching Belgrade from Mostar.

"Lee fought for justice freedom and reconciliation. I hope his statue will bring you happiness and prosperity," Chinese ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina Li Shuyuan told the unveiling ceremony, held in Mostar's central park.

The ceremony was also attended by the German ambassador, whose country's cultural foundation financed the project, and staff of the US embassy in Belgrade.

In a rare show of unity some 300 Bosnian Croats and Muslims attended the ceremony. During the ceremony members of a local kungfu club, dressed in colorful kimonos, demonstrated the martial art skills using the kung fu accessories that included nun chucks, swords and sticks.

The statue, made by Croatian sculptor Ivan Fijolic, was unveiled by Nino Raspudic of the Urban Movement of Mostar, a youth association that pushed for a statue to be erected more than two years ago.

Lee was chosen as a hero that all ethnic groups could relate to, in a city that was nearly destroyed during fierce fighting between Croats and Muslims and remains bitterly divided.

"Bruce Lee 1940-1973. Your Mostar" is the only text written on the base of the statue.

Lee, who died in 1973 at the age of 32, was born in the US but moved to Hong Kong as a child. In the early 1970s, he starred in a string of hugely successful martial arts films, Fists of Fury, Enter the Dragon, The Chinese Connection and Return of the Dragon.

(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2005)