Talks fail to end Bosnia deadlock: officials

(SARAJEVO) - Political leaders from Bosnia's Muslim, Croat and Serb communities on Wednesday failed to end a long-standing deadlock on how the divided country should be governed, EU and US mediators said.

The talks, part of an initiative by Brussels and Washington to reform Bosnia's constitution and make the country more functional, only saw "limited progress," the officials said.

Since the 1992-1995 war Bosnia consists of two semi-independent entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation -- linked by weak central institutions whose decisions must be backed by all three communities.

Reform of the Bosnian constitution has been demanded by the international community for several years. The Bosnian Serbs, however, have refused any modifications which might reduce their hold on power.

Mediators said the effort to reconcile the three sides would continue.

"The process we have begun at Butmir (EU peacekeepers' base near Sarajevo) will continue," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and US Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg said in a joint statement after the unsuccessful two-day gathering with Bosnian leaders.

"Although some limited progress has been made further discussions will be required... and some of the parties will need to demonstrate greater determination and flexibility," they added.

Bild and Steinberg said in the statement that the EU and US technical experts will return to Bosnia next week to continue negotiations.

When announcing the initiative earlier in October, the EU and US expressed "serious concern" about the political stalemate in Bosnia and warned the country that it risked "falling behind the rest of the region."