Macedonian Government welcomes the consent of Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos for a tete-a-tete meeting with Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski. However, it offers no comments until after the meeting, which comes as a result of a series of invitations from Skopje, sources at the Government say.

We have no comments until seeing whether the encounter will produce constructive talks, the sources say.

After almost three months Papademos responded yesterday to the proposal of Gruevski for a tete-a-tete meeting. He gave his approval for the meeting to take place on sidelines of the next European Council's session, scheduled for early March.

Those familiar with the name dispute tell MIA that Athens arranges the meeting ahead of the fortcoming elections and in a period when the entire international community is aware that any progress is impossible in the present circumstances and with the incumbent technical government in order to make an impression of its alleged constructiveness.

Ten days before a possible Gruevski- Papademos meeting UN mediator in Macedonian-Greek name negotiations Matthew Nimetz is expected to visit Skopje and Athens.