Bosnia "must move beyond Dayton accords"

Bosnia "must move beyond Dayton accords"

"We need to move from post-war arrangements to the most normal possible constitution given the circumstances,"  Lajčak told the Financial Times.

"Political normalcy is the pre-condition for sound economic development... and foreign direct investment."

Since the failure of the US-brokered "April package" of moderate constitutional reforms to win parliamentary approval last year, politicians from the three main ethnic groups have returned to defending the "partial interests of peoples and entities".

The Dayton treaty ended the bloodiest war in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia but left Bosnia-Herzegovina divided between two "entities"-- a semi-autonomous Serb-dominated republic and a federation of Muslim and Croat cantons.

Lajčak, who oversaw the Montenegro's peaceful transition to independence from Serbia last year, says he has "strong views on the region based on personal experience". His prescriptions could put him at odds with Milorad Dodik, prime minister of the Republic of Srpska that aims to preserve its separate identity, fiscal powers and control over its own police force.

However, Lajčak rules out unilateral moves to revise the peace treaty, as demanded by Bosniak-Muslim leaders who wish to eliminate the entity system and ethnic-based presidential voting. "You cannot impose normalization because it won't work," he said.

His arrival follows the forced exit of the previous high representative, Christian Schwartz -Schilling, whose failure to use of executive intervention powers against Dodik attracted scorn from western diplomats and Bosniak parties, the FT writes.

Mr Dodik has repeatedly linked Bosnian Serbs' widely held wish for independence to the future of Kosovo.

Washington had expressed reservations about Lajčak's appointment until Slovakia – a current UN Security Council member – set aside its pro-Serb objections to independence.

While he does not share his government's views on Kosovo, he says Slovakia's uphill reform battle before entering the EU in May 2004 give him valuable insights on what Bosnia-Herzegovina could achieve. Lajčak is the first high representative in Sarajevo to come from a "new" EU member state.