"It would not be good for Bosnia-Herzegovina to stay deadlocked this way," Ivanic told reporters in Sarajevo after meeting Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, who arrived for a day-long visit in his capacity as chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Rupel said he suggested reconsidering once again the need for the reform of the country's police because Bosnia had to solve internal problems before becoming part of the European community.
The Slovene minister, however, confused reporters by saying the EU did not have any particular view regarding consequences arising from the Bosnian Serb government's decision to refuse the proposed reform of police forces.
"I am not familiar with that," he said when asked about the EU's penalties, thus questioning the statement by the head of the European Commission Delegation to Bosnia, Michael Humphreys, who had said that representatives of the EU Troika had refused to meet Ivanic in New York recently because his Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) refused to support the police reform.
Humphreys expressly said last week this indicated that sanctions were already being implemented over the failed police reform.
Ivanic seized on Rupel's confusing statement, saying that an attempt to impose sanctions on Bosnian Serb officials was the wishful thinking of some officials in Sarajevo and that it was not supported by the EU.
Ivanic said he wanted the problem of police reform to be solved as soon as possible, adding that he was willing to propose a compromise solution that would be acceptable to all parties concerned.
He would not speak about details of this solution, adding that he would do so only when he was sure that it would be accepted.
Ivanic also declined comment on the Serb Democratic Party's (SDS) appeal to the PDP to join it in
condemning the decision of the High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina to impose financial restrictions on the SDS.
Ivanic believes that this matter should be dealt with by the country's ruling coalition, which is made up of the SDS, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
He confirmed that the current situation was untenable, saying that the government had met only three to four times in the past three months and only to discuss formal questions.