Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov (left) with his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias after their meeting in Athens, yesterday.
Athens: Macedonia ask Greece yesterday to help its bid to join Nato and the European Union, efforts frozen by a decades-long dispute over the ex-Yugoslav republic's name.
Greece, a member of both groups, says Macedonia's use of the name could imply territorial claims on Greece's most northerly province of the same name.
It is withholding support for Macedonia's further integration until it agrees to change it and has managed to get many international bodies, including the United Nations to formally refer to it as the Former Yugolav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM.
"I'm here to ask for your support," Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov, at one point Skopje's negotiator with Greece over the name, said in Athens.
"I'm convinced that you have the leverage in your hands and this leverage can help towards closing the way for the one open issue," Dimitrov said through an interpreter.
Athens would support Macedonia's integration "in every way, once the name issue has been resolved," Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said during a joint news conference.
"That is a the pre-requisite and I believe we must - and can - work towards a good compromise benefiting both sides," Kotzias said.
The Macedonia name dispute has dragged on for almost 26 years with no clear progress.
