NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has visited the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to reaffirm his support for the country's bid to join the alliance.
Greece used its veto to block Macedonian membership because of a dispute over the country's name.
Scheffer met top government officials in the capital Skopje and said he hoped to see them join their Albanian and Croatian counterparts on July 9 to sign a NATO succession protocol agreement.
The former Yugoslav Republic is holding elections on June 1 and hopes the new government can break the deadlock with Greece.
Athens refuses to recognise the name Macedonia as the word refers to a cultural and historical region that incorporates northern parts of Greece itself. It also suspects its Slavic neighbours of harbouring territorial ambitions in a Greek province that is already named Macedonia. The dispute has been raging since 1991.
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