Bosnia reform progress pending envoy's ruling: Serbs

Bosnia's Prime Minister Nikola Spiric addresses reporters as he announces his resignation in Sarajevo November 1, 2007. Bosnia's rival ethnic leaders met on Thursday to debate long-delayed reforms and try to resolve a crisis triggered by the prime minister's resignation earlier this month.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia's rival ethnic leaders discussed police reform vital to moving forward the country's bid to get EU membership on Thursday but failed to force through an agreement due to changes in voting rules.

International peace envoy, Miroslav Lajcak, demanded a change in voting rules in government to try to end frequent political deadlock by reducing the number of ministers needed to vote on laws. But the country's Serbs fear their influence will be diluted by giving more representation to Croats and Muslims.

The changes prompted Nikola Spiric, an ethnic Serb, to quit as prime minister, plunging the country into political crisis.

"We have made a step forward in relation to the police reform and this step could be decisive for the European Union to allow Bosnia initial the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA)", said Sulejman Tihic, head of the main Muslim party.

The failure to agree on how to reform Bosnia's ethnically separate police forces, a key condition for closer ties with Europe, has left Bosnia the only country in the region without any formal agreement with the European Union.

Bosnian Serbs said there would be no formal agreement on the measures until the crisis was resolved.

"We have discussed the actual situation but still do not have a definite answer," said Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, adding the agreement on the police reform could not become effective until the voting issue was resolved.

The leaders agreed to meet on Tuesday and try to clinch with parliament MPs a compromise deal on the voting system. Lajcak has told them to also streamline voting in parliament by December 1, otherwise he would impose his decision on it.

"If the High Representative imposes the ruling on parliament voting, then that would cement a long-term crisis without a way out," Dodik said.

Lajcak, the international community's High Representative in Bosnia, says he only aimed to end deadlocks between Bosnia's two regions, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic.

But Bosnian Serbs say that Lajcak infringed on the autonomy they had won at the end of the 1992-95 war and that he should amend his decision to make clear that no ethnic group in parliament can be outvoted by other ethnic groups.

Spiric's resignation further complicated the situation. The parliament majority is unlikely to agree on a new prime minister-designate, opening the prospect of new elections that could stoke ethnic tension and derail reforms.

The West wants proof that Bosnia's Serbs, Muslims and Croats are getting over the legacy of the war and can work together in a functioning state.

U.S. Ambassador Charles English said on Wednesday that opposition to Lajcak would only hurt Bosnia.

"Do not challenge the high representative. A challenge to him is a challenge to the United States," English said. "It diverts Bosnia from the European path, towards isolation and instability."

(Writing by Ellie Tzortzi and Daria Sito-Sucic; editing by Elizabeth Piper)