Speaking in a programme of the commercial TV1 station from Sarajevo this past weekend, Montgomery said that 15 years after the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina was still a problematic country which had not solved any of the important problems and that it was therefore realistic to consider its dissolution.

No one in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be forced to remain in the country that is not functioning, and one of the possible solutions is the separation of Republika Srpska and a peaceful dissolution of the country, said Montgomery.

He called particularly on the Bosniak people to start thinking about an alternative, saying that it was necessary also because of the fact that most Bosnian Serbs and Croats do not see Bosnia and Herzegovina as their own country and do not want to live in it.

The US Embassy in Sarajevo issued a statement, saying that the former diplomat was not speaking on behalf of the US government.

Our position on Bosnia and Herzegovina is well known and unchanged. The US fully supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the embassy said in the statement.

A similar response came from the Office of the High Representative (OHR), which said that the dissolution of Bosnia and Herzegovina was impossible.

The leading Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) said that Montgomery was only a former diplomat making irresponsible statements.

The leader of the Alliance For A Better Future (SBB), Fahrudin Radoncic, said Montegomery's statement was part of his lobbying activities and that the former US ambassador was primarily an advocate of "Greater Croatian privatisation interests", but he did not explain why, as a reported advocate of Croatian interests, Montgomery would be proposing the separation of the Serb entity from the rest of the country.

As expected, Montgomery's statement was welcomed by Bosnian Serb officials.