Bosnia-Herzegovina's new tripartite presidency, which was elected in the general elections on Oct. 1, was sworn in on Monday in Sarajevo.

During the ceremony in Sarajevo's presidential building, Serb Nebojsa Radmanovic, Croat Zeljko Komsic and Bosniak Haris Silajdzic officially took over the four-year presidential post from their predecessors Borislav Paravac, of the Serb Democratic Party, Ivo Miro Jovic, of the Croat Democratic Union, and Sulejman Tihic, of the Party of Democratic Action.

Radmanovic, of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, is to chair the new presidency in the first eight-month rotation, to be followed by Komsic, of the Social Democratic Party, and then Silajdzic, of the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"Bosnia-Herzegovina must progress. We have to become a real part of Europe," Radmanovic said at the ceremony.

Bosnia's peoples must overcome their differences and reconcile, while the new authorities must start reviving the economy immediately so that the country could progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration, he said.

Bosnia's tripartite presidency is the first institution to be officially inaugurated since the elections. Political parties are still negotiating coalitions ahead of forming the parliament and the Council of Ministers or the central government.

The election showed the country's three main ethnic groups had shifted away from the nationalist parties that led them into the bloody 1992-95 war.

According to the constitution, Bosnia-Herzegovina is comprised of two entities -- the Srpska Republic and the Muslim-Croat federation. In addition to the central government and national parliament, each entity has its own government and parliament.

Source: Xinhua