The British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, has expressed support for Slovenia's bids to join both the European Union and NATO, saying Slovenia is still a front-runner for EU membership.

Mr Cook was speaking during a visit to the former Yugoslav republic, where he met the President, Milan Kucan.

Slovenia has already started talks on EU membership, but was criticised recently for being too slow in changing its legislation to conform to Western European standards.

Mr Cook added he regretted Slovenia's exclusion from last year's round of NATO enlargement talks.