Nato and the European Union expressed concern today about divisive political rhetoric in Bosnia and Brussels said the country should concentrate on reforms if it was serious about joining the EU.
Rivalry between Bosnia's ethnic leaders has slowed the Balkan country's progress towards the EU after it signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in June, the first step to eventual membership.
Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he would be sending his deputy Claudio Bisogniero to Sarajevo soon to assess the mood there.
"There is certainly concern about the political rhetoric we are hearing, concern about what has been said by some politicians," he told a news briefing after a meeting of Nato ambassadors and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Mr Solana said the rival leaders should understand that the rhetoric did not help Bosnia's aim of eventual EU membership. Bosnia also aspires to join Nato.
"It is necessary that they keep on working together to stabilise the country and move with the reforms that have to be done," he said. "That will be the only way in which they can join the institutions that they claim they want to join."
Bosnia is made up of two autonomous regions, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic, which co-exist in an uneasy alliance under a weak central government. The Bosnian Serbs want to keep the autonomy of their region while Muslims and Croats aspire to a more centralised state.
Animosities have deepened since rival leaders Haris Silajdzic, the Muslim chairman of the state inter-ethnic presidency, and Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, came to power in a 2006 parliamentary vote.
Bosnian Serb politicians this month demanded the right to call a referendum on secession from Bosnia-Herzegovina, underlining doubts about the country's EU entry prospects.
The commission is due to issue early next month its annual report on Bosnia's progress towards joining the EU.
Reuters