Greece Threatens Macedonia NATO Veto

Macedonia hopes to be invited alongside Croatia and Albania at an April 2-4 summit to join the 26-member military alliance.

Greece said on Thursday it could not support neighbouring Macedonia's entry into NATO for now, accusing Skopje of nationalist intransigence in a dispute over the former Yugoslav republic's name.

Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni said she told NATO foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels that Macedonia's attitude could leave Athens no alternative but to use its veto at an alliance summit in Bucharest next month.

"As far as the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia is concerned, I stressed that the policy of our neighbour country does not allow us to take the same positive view as regarding Albania and Croatia," Bakoyanni told a news conference.

But she also said it was not too late for Skopje to change its position.

Macedonia hopes to be invited at an April 2-4 summit to join the 26-member military alliance alongside Croatia and Albania.

Athens has said it will block Macedonia's NATO and European Union accession until the two agree on a name for Greece's northern neighbour, which broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Greece rejects the name Macedonia because it says it implies territorial ambitions towards Greece's own northern province of Macedonia, birthplace of Alexander the Great.

Bakoyanni accused Macedonia of "an intransigent stance and its action of an irredentist and nationalistic logic".

"I underlined that the intransigence that has persisted to date ... has left us with no other choice," she said. "We are not happy about that. Nobody likes vetoes."

But she added: "I sincerely hope that there is still time to reach a mutually acceptable practical solution to be implemented immediately".

A United Nations special envoy, Matthew Nimetz, has been shuttling between Athens and Skopje in an effort to resolve the dispute before the NATO summit and has put forward several suggested alternative names.

Nimetz said on Thursday that Macedonia was showing "intense interest" in resolving the dispute and he had received a lot of encouragement to continue his task.