Schwarz-Schilling made the statement in Vienna, where he was attending a conference on the situation in the region, organised by the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe.
Sources from the Office of the High Representative (OHR) confirmed that Schwarz-Schilling did give such a statement, according to BHT 1.
The OHR today only issued a media statement about the content of Schwarz-Schilling's address to the Vienna meeting.
It was stated that Schwarz-Schilling said that the closure of the OHR, scheduled for mid-2007, was not inevitable and that the international community would abandon such plans if the blockade of necessary reforms in the country continued.
Commenting on the possibility of his replacement, Republika Srpska PM Milorad Dodik told reporters in Banja Luka that he stood behind everything that he had said about the referendum, adding that he would continue to advocate that possibility if others continued to talk about the abolishment of the Serb entity.