Latest Bosnia Power-Sharing Deal Collapses

Bosnia and Herzegovina faces the possibility of new general elections after leaders of the country's six main parties again failed to end the logjam on the formation of a state government. Thirteen months have passed since the last elections.

On Thursday another round of talks broke up without result, with both main camps blaming the other for the breakdown.

Zlatko Lagumdzija, leader of the Social Democrats, said Milorad Dodik and Mladen Bosic, leaders of the two main Serbian parties, had shown some flexibility, which he said was not the case with Dragan Covic and Bozo Ljubic, leaders of the two main Bosnian Croat parties. 

But Dodik gave a different assessment, saying that the Bosniak [Muslim] politicians had again demanded too many key ministerial posts for a deal to be possible.

Lagumdzija and Sulejman Tihic had demanded the foreign and finance ministries as well as four other ministries and the post of head of the Taxation Office, which he described as unacceptable. 

Croat leader Bozo Ljubic said the negotiations had got stuck on the issue of control of state agencies. 

In the next ten days bilateral meetings will continue in an attempt to reach a political agreement.

While the European Union has given Bosnia a December deadline to adopt key laws and reforms, if it wants to move forward towards EU membership, such progress looks impossible while the country remains in deadlock.

At the moment, Bosnia's state government is only ticking over over under a so-called "technical mandate" but without a new state budget or any possibility of major legislative initiatives.