After hours-long meetings held behind closed doors, the leaders of the seven parties agreed that a new Prime Minister, or Chairman of the Council of Ministers, should be a Serb. According to earlier announcements, this would be Nikola Spiric of the Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD).
The agreement was also reached on the distribution of ministerial posts according to the ethnic structure, but the parties would propose their candidates for the posts at a later date.
In addition to the SNSD, the new coalition would include representatives of the Democratic Action Party (SDA), the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina (SBiH), the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HDZ BiH), the HDZ 1990, the People's Party (NSRZB) and the Democratic Progress Party (PDP).
According to the media, two leading Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) parties - SDA and SBiH - will fill in four ministerial posts, namely those of foreign affairs, security, defence and human rights.
It seems certain that Sven Alkalaj, the current Bosnian ambassador to NATO and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Belgium, will be the new Foreign Minister. He is a member of the SBiH led by Haris Silajdzic.
Croatian parties will be awarded three ministries: finance, state treasury, and transport and communications.
According to some speculations, the HDZ BiH led by Dragan Covic will get two ministries and the HDZ 1990 led by Bozo Ljubic one.
The third Croatian party, the People's Party (NSRZB), will not assume ministerial posts but will be a part of the coalition's majority in the national parliament.
The two Serb parties - the SNSD and the PDP - will assume the ministries of foreign trade and civil affairs.