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Macedonia deal before NATO summit unlikely: Greece

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By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS | Tue Apr 1, 2008 1:13pm EDT

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece said on Tuesday it was unlikely to resolve a dispute with NATO aspirant Macedonia over its name before an alliance summit this week.

Pressure to resolve the dispute has intensified ahead of the April 2-4 NATO meeting in Romania, where Croatia, Albania and Macedonia will be considered for membership.

NATO member Greece has threatened to veto Macedonia's invitation to join NATO if the former Yugoslav republic does not change its constitutional name, which is the same as Greece's northernmost province, birthplace of Alexander the Great.

"There is no or very little time left," Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman George Koumoutsakos told reporters. "The time left until then (NATO Summit) is dramatically limited or even non-existent."

NATO and the European Union want a solution to the dispute for the sake of stability in the Balkans. Macedonia came to the brink of ethnic war in 2001 after an Albanian insurgency.

In a commentary in the International Herald Tribune on Tuesday, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni said her country had done more than its share to resolve the dispute but was up against Macedonian "intransigence".

"As long as this problem persists we cannot and will not endorse FYROM joining NATO or the European Union," Bakoyanni wrote. "No Greek government will ever agree to it. No Greek parliament will ever approve it."

Macedonia uses its name in bilateral ties with many states, but is called "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" at the United Nations, and by NATO and the European Union. It split from Yugoslavia in 1991.

U.N. negotiators suggested a compromise, Republic of Macedonia (Skopje), but it was not accepted by Greece, which would accept a name such as Republic of New Macedonia or one with a geographical distinction.

Koumoutsakos denied suggestions Greece was under pressure from Washington to allow Macedonia to join under the temporary name it uses at the United Nations.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by Giles Elgood)
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