NIKOLA SPIRIC AGAIN CANDIDATE FOR BOSNIA'S PRIME MINISTER

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (December 13,2007) – Nikola Spiric, who resigned last month as Bosnia's Premier triggering a month-long political crisis, was nominated again as the prime minister-designate and will most probably keep his old cabinet.

Bosnia's political leaders agreed to re-nominate Spiric a day before a deadline expired for political parties to propose candidates.

The Bosnian Presidency was due to approve Spiric's nomination yesterday, but first needed formal clearance from the election commission and the state security agency. Parliamentary approval is expected next week.

Spiric resigned on Nov. 1 in protest against a measure by the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia,Miroslav Lajcak, to revamp the government's voting rules.

However,Lajcak stated that it is a paradox that Spiric is against the measures aimed at the strengthening of the functionality of the Bosnian State Government,headed by Spiric himself.

But the crisis was defused this month after Bosnia's leaders agreed on more efficient voting systems in the Bosnian State Parliament and on steps to reform their separate police forces.

They were rewarded by the European Union, which initialled the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Bosnia on Dec 4, the first rung on the ladder to the EU membership.

The deal will be signed once Bosnia has produced concrete results in its reform pledges. A key reform concerns the unification of the ethnically separate police forces.