A U.S. delegation led by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman has urged Bosnia's leaders to overcome differences that prevent the nation from progressing toward EU and NATO membership.
During a brief visit to Sarajevo on Friday, the delegation met with Bosnia's three-member presidency and defense minister.
McCain and Lieberman told reporters they hope Bosnians will use this year's election to choose leaders who can take the country toward unity and membership in those alliances.
However, that requires a stronger national government, and since the 1992-95 war Muslim Bosniak and Catholic Croat leaders have had little luck persuading Christian Orthodox Serbs to overcome the country's ethnic divisions.