Edge decomposition into isomorphic copies of sK(1,2) is polynomial

Let H be a fixed graph. We say that a graph G admits an H-decomposition if the set of edges of G can be partitioned into subsets generating graphs isomorphic to H. Denote by P-H the problem of exisitence of an H-decomposition of a graph. The Holyer problem is to classify the problems P-H according to their computational complexities. In this paper we show that the problem P-H is polynomial when H is the union of s disjoint 2-edge paths. (C) 1997 Academic Press.