Mrs Clinton, on a diplomatic mission to the Balkans, will step up US pressure on Bosnia's Serb, Croat and Muslim leaders to enact political and economic reforms that could open the door to both European Union and NATO membership, US officials said.
Since the 1992-95 war in Bosnia in which about 100,000 people were killed, it has lagged in reforms and remains near the back of the queue of Western Balkan countries aspiring to EU and NATO membership.
"It is fair to say that the political process is stalled," Philip Gordon, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said.
"That is one reason the secretary wanted to come here and underscore for the parties their need to move forward with the types of reforms that will strengthen their candidacies for European Union membership and NATO membership," he said.
Mrs Clinton arrived in Bosnia just over a week after presidential and parliamentary polls in the former Yugoslav state which appeared to do little to change ethnic rivalries that have dogged the uneasy union of its Muslim-Croat federation and Serb Republic.
The deadlock has set back Bosnia's chances of EU and NATO entry, with leaders unable to agree on consitutional reforms or on dividing fixed military assets - conditions that Western nations say are essential if it is to meet membership standards.
Mr Gordon said Mrs Clinton would stress to leaders of all three communities, starting with Bosnia's tripartite presidency, that it was time to follow through on the promises of US-brokered 1995 peace accords which ended Bosnia's war.
"The rest of the region is moving toward Europe and Bosnia is going to have to overcome these ethnic divides," said Mr Gordon.
Mrs Clinton's visit is her first as secretary of state to Sarajevo, a city that dominated the headlines during the administration of her husband, former US President Bill Clinton.
She will travel on to Belgrade where she will urge Serbia's leaders to follow through on an offer of talks with the former Serbian but ethnic Albanian dominated province of Kosovo, which declared independence two years ago and remains a point of friction for the region.
Mrs Clinton will visit Kosovo on Wednesday, seeking to emphasise the US commitment to equal rights for its Serb minority population, before moving on to Brussels for discussions with her NATO counterparts.
