Macedonian PM offers Greece talks over name

(SKOPJE) - Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said Sunday he was ready to meet his Greek counterpart "any time, anywhere" to discuss solving the 19-year name dispute between Skopje and Athens.

"I am ready to meet and talk with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou any time, anywhere," Gruevski said.

He added that officials in Athens have hinted that his proposal for talks "was accepted, with the date and place yet to be determined."

Gruevski's comments came ahead of a visit by the United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz to Skopje and Athens, in the latest attempt to solve the ongoing row.

For nearly two decades, the two neighbours have been at loggerheads over the use of the name Macedonia.

Athens considers the name to be part of its heritage because of the northern Greek province of the same name.

Greece has blocked international recognition of its northern neighbour under the name of Macedonia since it became an independent nation in the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991.

Macedonia joined the United Nations in 1993 under the provisional name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), but UN-led negotiations on the name dispute have yet to find a solution.

Macedonia has been an official EU candidate nation since December 2005 but has not yet begun any of the detailed negotiations required prior to membership.

In December, the EU announced it had pushed back a decision to allow Macedonia to enter membership talks to the first semester of 2010. Such a decision requires unanimity from the EU members including Greece.

Last year, Greece also blocked Skopje's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).