Macedonian, Greek Envoys Meet in New York

The meeting, held at the UN headquarters in New York, was part of the regular consultative contacts which Nimetz's mandate foresees, UN sources told Macedonian state MIA news agency.

No further details about possible concrete name proposals were revealed following the meeting.

During the past few days both sides have indicated that they expect talks to resume shortly in an effort to reach a solution for the 19 year old name spat.

Macedonia PM Nikola Gruevski said recently that he expects Nimetz to table a new more concrete set of ideas or proposal for a compromise name that would satisfy both sides.

In a separate interview he mentioned that he personally would be against “Republic of Northern Macedonia” for all uses. This name has been aired as one of the most likely compromises.

The spat over the use of the name Macedonia escalated in 2008 when Greece blocked Macedonia’s NATO entry. Athens claims that Skopje’s official name, Republic of Macedonia, implies territorial claims over its own northern province, also called Macedonia.

The situation got even more complicated last December when Greece blocked Macedonia from getting a start date for its EU accession talks over the same dispute.

Since then observers have been pointing to July as a possible informal deadline for reaching a settlement.