European Commissioner Olli Rehn has presented to Croatia and Slovenia a proposed compromise to resolve a bilateral border dispute and get Croatia's European Union accession negotiations back on track.

The proposed compromise was presented to Croatian foreign minister Gordan Jandrokovic and his Slovenian counterpart Samuel Zbogar on March 25 2009, regional and international media reports said.

No statements were made after the three met, but Rehn's office said that the proposed compromise was being studied and responses were expected in a few days.

Rehn said that he would brief EU foreign ministers at a meeting on March 27 and 28 in the Czech Republic on his discussions with Croatia and Slovenia.

Croatia hopes to meet its deadline to conclude technical negotiations on EU accession by the end of 2009.

Rehn that Croatia still had hope of concluding these negotiations by the end of 2009, but that the "clock is ticking". He urged Zagreb to continue with the necessary reforms.

An earlier statement on Rehn's website earlier this month said that the delimitation of the border between Croatia and Slovenia was "a bilateral issue that has become a European problem".

To solve the problem, EC President Jose Barroso and Rehn had taken the initiative to propose European facilitation.

"The Commission's initiative to set up a Senior Expert Group aims at producing a solution on the border issue between the two countries and in parallel at unblocking Croatia's EU accession negotiations. Thus Croatia could be able to meet her target timeline of concluding the technical negotiations by the end of this year 2009 - of course, provided that she meets all other conditions," Rehn's website said.