BELGRADE, May 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden said here Tuesday the United States was worried about the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina where dangerous nationalist rhetoric threatens the Balkan country's survival and its EU membership process.

    "We are concerned about the direction your country has taken," Biden said in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo in an address to Bosnian members of parliament, politicians, public figures and religious leaders.

    Biden said both the United States and the European Union were concerned about the fact that the past three years had seen a constant increase in nationalist rhetoric playing with people's fears.

    "This has to stop," said Biden, calling on Bosnian politicians to finally agree and enable the implementation of reforms required to join the EU and NATO.

    If Bosnia-Herzegovina fails to join the EU and meet all the set conditions, it would remain the poorest country in Europe and be in ethnic chaos, he said.

    Biden said the Dayton peace agreement must be respected and the United States strongly supported the office of the international community's High Representative and that it would not allow its closure before the completion of reforms that would provide for the resumption of Bosnia's Euro-Atlantic integration.

    Biden, who arrived for a one-day visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina, met members of Bosnia's collective presidency on Tuesday afternoon.

    EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Sarajevo Tuesday to join Biden for talks with Bosnian leaders.

    The U.S.-brokered peace agreement at Dayton, Ohio, in 1995 ended Bosnia's 1992-1995 war and left the former Yugoslav republic divided into two entities, the Serb republic and Muslim-Croat federation. Under the agreement, each entity has its own government, parliament and police, but neither is allowed to secede.

    Bosnian Muslim leader Haris Silajdzic has led the call for abolishing the two entities and strengthening the central government, while Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik threatens to hold an independence referendum if the Serb entity's survival is questioned.