The talks were discontinued late on Wednesday night after almost 14 hours of difficult negotiations which did not yield any concrete results, the main stumbling block being the change of the role and composition of the incumbent state presidency.
"There is no agreement on key issues. We will resume the talks on January 3 and 4," the leader of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Sulejman Tihic, told reporters after the closed-door meeting.
Other participants in the talks confirmed that the parties had kept the same positions as before the formal start of the process of constitutional reforms.
The leader of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP), Mladen Ivanic, said the parties were battling over two possible concepts. One envisages keeping the current state presidency, with one of its members holding the post of chairman with slightly more powers, while the other concept envisages election of a presidency chairman with two deputies, who would have symbolic roles in performing authority.
The leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), Dragan Covic, said that as long as the issue of the country's internal organisation remained closed, his party could not consider discussions on constitutional changes useful. The Bosnian Croats are extremely dissatisfied with the middle level of authority.
US Ambassador Douglas McElhaney, mediator in the talks, said that numerous useful proposals had been heard and that they would be used in the adoption of final decisions.
"We have not reached agreement on this package, but we have time to come back to it and talk again," the US diplomat said.