BOSNIAN STATE PRESIDENCY TO DISCUSS NOMINATING NEW BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (November 2,2007) - The Bosnian State Presidency confirmed yesterday in Sarajevo that it would convene today to discuss the resignation of Bosnia's Prime Minister Nikola Spiric.In accordance to the Bosnian laws and constitutional decrees, decisions on further measures will be passed.Bosnia's Prime Minister Nikola Spiric announced his resignation earlier yesterday.

"I wish to inform the Bosnian public that I have officially sent my resignation to the Bosnian Presidency. I also informed the ministers that the Bosnian Government will work under a technical mandate from now on," Spiric told reporters in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

Spiric said he resigned due to his disagreement with the measures of the international administrator in Bosnia to streamline the decision-making process in the country's central government and parliament.

But,the International community's High Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajcak said it was paradoxical that "the Chairman of the Council of Ministers should resign over measures that are designed to make the council, the body that he chairs, more efficient".

“Nikola Spiric’s decision to resign is his right and his choice, but it is not a responsible action.It will not calm the current political situation but I expect the Council of Ministers to exercise their technical mandate in full,” Lajcak added.

According to Bosnia's law on the Council of Ministers, the Bosnian State Presidency is in charge of nominating the chairman of the council, who then suggests the Bosnian Government.

With the resignation of the premier the entire government, including its nine ministers, is dismissed but continues to function in a technical mandate until the new Bosnian Government is established.