A nation of 5.4 million people, it is bordered in the west by Austria, in the north by the Czech Republic and Poland and in the south by Hungary.

To the east is Ukraine, with which it shares a border of only 98 kilometres (60 miles).

Slovakia is thus a key player in determining how the European Union's eastern border will look as it is one of 10 countries invited to join the 15-nation bloc in 2004.

The country, formerly part of Czecheslovakia, declared independence 10 years ago in the so-called "velvet divorce" and is therefore Europe's second youngest state after Serbia and Montenegro, which was formed in February.

Slovakia struggled for centuries to carve out an identity for itself under the Austro-Hungarian empire and later as part of Czechoslovakia.

Slovak intellectuals drew closer to their fellow Slavs -- the Czechs -- in the 19th century when the Austro-Hungarian empire imposed a policy of enforced Magyarisation, finally in 1907 making Hungarian the sole language of elementary education in Slovakia.

Slovakia had a sad period of independence under the Nazis when Hitler created a fascist puppet state headed by Jozef Tiso, who was executed in 1947 as a war criminal.

Czechs and Slovaks were united in Czechoslovakia after World War I in 1918 and then reunited in 1945.

The fall of communism in 1989 led to a rise in nationalism in Slovakia, where people felt that the Czechs looked down on them. Slovakia had been by far the poorest part of Czechoslovakia.

In February 1992, the Slovak parliament rejected a treaty to remain part of federal Czechoslovkia.

Hardline nationalist Vladimir Meciar led the movement towards independence that culminated in the creation of Slovakia in 1993.

Meciar was prime minister from 1994 to 1998 but has since been rejected by voters as a government leader even though his Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) party remains the most popular political grouping.

A new centre-right moderate government that has pledged to lead Slovakia into the EU and NATO took power ina general election in September 2002.

Slovakians see joining the EU as crucial in overcoming economic problems, including unemployment, which is running at almost 18 percent.