INTERNATIONAL mediators yesterday began the arduous task of building a new Bosnian government after election results which confirmed the political control of nationalists over the country's Muslim, Serb and Croat communities.
Diplomats who attended meetings with the newly elected leaders yesterday said that while there had been no talk of secession, neither was there any progress on setting up joint institutions.
Unofficial results from Saturday's elections for a new tripartite presidency confirmed the three nationalist leaders had crushed moderate challengers within their own communities.
Of the three, the Muslim leader and presidential incumbent, Mr Alija Izetbegovic, narrowly won the most votes and so once the results are checked and certified will become chairman of the presidency, and the country's post war head of state.
The other two members of the presidency will be Mr Momcilo Krajisnik, a Bosnian Serb separatist leader, and Mr Kresimir Zubak, a leading Bosnian Croat nationalist, who easily won contests in their respective ethnic constituencies.
Mr Carl Bildt, the international community's High Representative in Bosnia, visited Mr Izetbegovic in Sarajevo yesterday together with diplomats from the US, Britain, France, Germany and Russia (the "Contact Group"), to discuss the creation of power sharing institutions.
They then travelled to the Serb separatist stronghold, Pale, nine miles east of the Bosnian capital to hold talks with Mr Krajisnik and are due to meet Mr Zubak this morning.
After meeting Mr Krajisnik Mr Bildt had no progress to report and could only appeal for compromise. "This is the time for statesmanship in order to overcome the fears and divisions and all of that which was there in the past, and to a very large extent is still there," he told reporters.
Mr Bildt was trying to organise a preliminary meeting of the presidency in Sarajevo, to discuss the creation of other power sharing institutions, such as a multi ethnic national assembly, a council of ministers and a central bank, and a "quick start" package of legislation to get the new state functioning.
Diplomats said the Contact Group delegates accompanied Mr Bildt to emphasise "the commitment of the international community" to the rapid creation of new institutions.
Their first job was to find a venue for presidential meetings acceptable to all three sides, but diplomats who took part in yesterday's talks said there was little sign of compromise.
Mr Krajisnik, the diplomats said, refused to contemplate meeting in central Sarajevo, which is on the territory of the Muslim Croat Federation, both for symbolic and security reasons. Instead, he suggested sites on the former front line, which in most places now marks the ethnic boundary between the federation and the Republika Srpska.
The quarrel over venues will be only the first of hundreds of tough negotiating sessions ahead. For example, there is no agreed ethnic quota system for the council of ministers or for ambassadorial posts, and these are expected to become the source of disagreements, especially within the federation. Each member of the presidency will have a veto, and all three of them are known as hard bargainers.
A preliminary bilateral meeting between Mr Krajisnik and Mr Zubak is expected in the next few days, in an effort to prepare the ground for a full meeting of the presidency. If that proves impossible, Mr Bildt's strategy is to fly the three nationalist leaders to New York next week for a joint appearance before the UN General Assembly.
David Fairhall in Sarajevo adds
The German Defence Minister, Mr Volker Rube, yesterday reaffirmed his determination that his soldiers will play a more active role in whatever military presence replaces the present Nato led peace implementation force in Bosnia after December.