United Nations special envoy on the Macedonia name issue Matthew Nimetz has admitted that there was no progress on bridging the gap between Athens and Skopje after the latest leg of his shuttle diplomacy tour.

Both sides want to settle the issue, but have different stands on the Macedonia name, Nimetz said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily, after meeting Greek negotiator on the issue ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis in Thessaloniki.

With less than four weeks remaining before the Nato summit in Bucharest, where Macedonia hopes to receive an invitation to join the organisation, Nimetz' only hope was that the two parties would show more willingness to cooperate, since he had no new proposals to make.

Greece remains resolute it would block the invitation unless an agreement is reached before the April 2-4 summit, foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis said during a meeting of Nato foreign ministers on March 6 in Brussels.

Greece would veto Macedonia's bid unless Skopje did not make concessions by the beginning of April, Bakoyannis said, but also because of “outbursts of nationalism during the negotiations on the name of the country”.

Attending the same meeting, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin refused to pick sides, saying that it supported all of its neighbours joining Nato and the European Union, but also that it was a bilateral issue, as quoted by Dnevnik.