GENEVA, June 7 (Reuter) - Thorvald Stoltenberg, the United Nations mediator for former Yugoslavia, said on Wednesday he could work well with ex-Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt as a replacement for outgoing EU mediator Lord David Owen.

"I have known Carl Bildt for many years and if he is appointed I am confident we will work well together," Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian foreign minister, told Reuters.

Reports from Paris said Bildt, currently leader of the conservative opposition in Sweden, was likely to be named to replace Owen at a meeting of European Union leaders in the French capital on Friday.

Owen, a former British foreign secretary, announced on May 31 that he was stepping down at the end of June after nearly three years in the job.

As EU mediator, Bildt would become co-chairman with Stoltenberg of the Geneva-based International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia (ICFY), set up by the U.N. and the EU in August 1992 at a conference in London.

Some EU officials have indicated that Bildt could also be given powers as mediator for the five-power Contact Group which largely took over early last year from Owen and Stoltenberg efforts to negotiate a peace in Bosnia.

But diplomats said that would not alter the position within ICFY where the two co-chairmen have always shared full responsability for each others' activities.