Banja Luka - Bosnian Serb lawmakers voted Wednesday to resist closer ties with the rest of the country, underlining Bosnia- Herzegovina's paralysis as it seeks to join the European Union.

A resolution by the Bosnian Serb republic's parliament also called for fewer powers for the international administrator who polices Bosnia's divided politics under the 1995 Dayton peace agreement.

The crisis flared from a UN General Assembly speech last month by the Muslim member of Bosnia's three-member presidency in which he accused Bosnian Serbs of genocide during the 
1992-95 ethnic war.

Infuriated officials in the Bosnian Serb area, known as Republika Srpska (RS), responded by vowing to protect their rights and threatening a referendum on independence from the other half of postwar Bosnia, the Muslim-Croat federation.

A three-day RS assembly session ended Wednesday with no mention of a referendum, but with a warning that any further transfer of power from the Serb region to central authorities in Sarajevo can only happen with the Bosnian Serb parliament's agreement.

In a 68-7 vote, the parliament also called for the so-called High Representative's office to be transformed into a EU special envoy's office.

The international envoy, Czech diplomat Miroslav Lajcak, was quoted on Wednesday as warning that Bosnia is losing time on its EU path because of the constant bickering of its politicians.

"In Bosnia there is no common ground on any question," he told Nezavisne Novine, a daily in Banja Luka, the Bosnian Serb capital.

He reiterated that there will be "no separation" of any parts of postwar Bosnia.

Bosnia signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in June, formally putting it in line to join the bloc at some point.

But the country's endless squabbling and three-way split - papered over in the Dayton agreement after some 100,000 war deaths - makes for huge hurdles.

Outraged by Muslim presidency member Haris Silajdzic's UN speech, the RS assembly said Wednesday it will ban him from speaking in Bosnia's name without prior agreement by the three-member presidency. (dpa)