MACEDONIA AND ALBANIA TO FOCUS ON ECONOMIC COOPERATION IN 2005

Macedonian-Albanian relations this year should be focused on the economic cooperation, Prime Ministers Vlado Buckovski and Fatos Nano said Wednesday after their meeting in Tirana. "Organizing of economic forums and taking advantage of the Free Trade Agreement will boost the economic cooperation," Nano said. Referring to the AMBO pipeline, Nano said that signed memo on pipeline construction, which took place last month in Sofia, presented a symbolic announcement of a wish for the Corridor 8 to become reality. At a meeting with his Albanian counterpart, Buckovski expressed Macedonia's readiness to share the experience with its neighbor in regard to negotiations on signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union. Buckovski and Nano also talked about the Adriatic Charter implementation, which should accelerate the accession of Macedonia, Albania and Croatia to NATO.They expressed satisfaction with the good cooperation between the interior ministries of both countries in prevention of transborder crime. Referring to Albania's recognition of Macedonia's constitutional name, Nano said Tirana would accept any solution reached at the Greek-Macedonian negotiations, held in New York under the UN auspices.