The Presidency thus dismissed criticisms levelled a day earlier by the Office of the High Representative (OHR), which accused the state leadership of obstructing the establishment of a register at the state court.
The Presidency's failure to take measures to establish the court register seriously brings into question the country's integration into Euro-Atlantic associations, reads a statement issued by Paddy Ashdown.
The Presidency explained that its members in principle accepted provisions of an agreement with the OHR on the establishment of the register at the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina Department for War Crimes and Organised and White-Collar Crime and Corruption, but wanted some legal and technical ambiguities to be removed from he document.
The country's government, the Council of Ministers, is in charge of making the changes, and the Presidency expects to discuss the amended text of the agreement already at its next session.
The exit strategy of the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia envisages the transfer of war crimes trials to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the course of 2005.
This has already been discussed with representatives of the Bosnian authorities, and the international community has pledged to ensure an initial amount of some 20 million euros for trials and investigations in 2005.
Prosecutor John McNair, who heads the Department for Organised Crime and is expected to be given powers to prosecute war crimes, has said that the first such case would be transferred to Sarajevo as early as October.
This is the trial of Zeljko Meakic and three other Bosnian Serbs accused of the torture and killing of non-Serbs in the infamous Omarska prison camp near Prijedor.
However, the prosecution of war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina will not be entirely transferred to domestic judges and prosecutors. The state prosecution will also include foreign judges and prosecutors.
The trial chamber will consist of two foreign judges and one from Bosnia-Herzegovina, who are to be appointed through the register by High Representative Ashdown, a task which requires the signing of the agreement between the Presidency and the OHR.
Before war crimes trials are transferred to the national judiciary, the country's parliament will have to approve a set of implementation laws ensuring the functioning of the war crimes department.
The Council of Ministers sent the bills to parliament almost two months ago, but their adoption was obstructed by deputies from the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), who opposed the request for urgent adoption seeking to be given the right to submit amendments.