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Haris rescinds

resignation

SARAJEVO: Bosnia's prime minister stepped back from the brink on Thursday, rescinding his resignation after a day-long session of the country's collective presidency considered his complaints, the government press agency said.

The agency said Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic had asked Haris Silajdzic to stay on as prime minister and he had agreed to do so.

"The joint attitude of all ministers was that in this current moment complete unity is essential in order to resist (separatist Bosnian Serb) aggression," the government's BH Press Agency said in a statement on Thursday evening.

"Taking this into account, President Izetbegovic called on Dr. Silajdzic to continue his duty as prime minister of the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dr. Silajdzic has accepted."

Silajdzic, 50, resigned last Thursday in a surprise move which seemed at first to stem from a personality conflict between him and Foriegn Minister Muhamed Sacirbey.

But foreign diplomats in Sarajevo said Silajdzic had become deeply disenchanted with Bosnia's ruling Party of Democratic Action (SDA), which has emerged as a monolith of Moslem power.

"Dr. Silajdzic has received a new mandate. He will stay on. He is still prime minister," confirmed a source in Silajdzic's office after the presidency sesssion ended.

BH Press Agency reported that a special commission had been established to investigate Silajdzic's concerns about problems inside the government.

Diplomatic sources in Sarajevo said the prime minister is worried that Bosnia is becoming a one-party state and that the SDA, not he, is now running the government in terms of policies and appointments.

Silajdzic, himself a member of the SDA, has been an ardent advocate of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic Bosnia in the 40-month war against Serb nationalists.

Born into a family of prominent Islamic scholars, the prime minister is schooled in Moslem theology.

Viewed as an an independent Moslem intellectual, Silajdzic used his fluency in English, Arabic and Bosnian to become his government's most prominent figure on the world stage.

Silajdzic had orchestrated an outpouring of support from foreign capitals, diplomats and the public in the wake of his resignation, including a petition signed by 23,000 people in the northern industrial city of Tuzla.-Reuter