The participants in the negotiations have a cooperative and serious approach, said US Ambassador Douglas McElhaney, who joined in the negotiations this week at the instruction of his government, together with a representative of the US Institute for Peace, Donald Hays.
The US Embassy in Sarajevo quoted McElhaney as saying the United States applauded the fact that the participants were agreed about a package guaranteeing respect of human rights in keeping with international and European Union standards.
Agreement has been reached on five pages of a document guaranteeing Bosnian citizens' human rights, but discussion on other contentious issues goes on, the leader of the ruling Party of Democratic Action, Sulejman Tihic, said during a break in the negotiations.
The leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Zlatko Lagumdzija, was satisfied with what was achieved. He said that in the future, every citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be protected as an individual and not as a member of one national community, as was the case until now.
Representatives of Bosnian Serb parties, too, were satisfied with what was achieved, but insisted that they would not allow the abolishment of the rotating three-member state presidency.
They are willing to the election of one president and two vice-presidents who would rotate every 16 months. They also agree in principle to reinforcing the role of the prime minister and the expansion of the Council of Ministers, but wish to retain the system which stipulates a certain ethnic majority in decision-making at the government.