The Greek Foreign Minister, Theodoros Pangalos, has held talks in Macedonia -- his first visit to the former Yugoslav republic since it elected a new centre-right coalition government.

After the talks, Mr Pangalos and his Macedonian counterpart, Aleksandar Dimitrov, said they'd discussed economic issues, including opening an oil pipeline and improving train services.

However, controversy erupted at the news conference when the issue of recognising an ethnic-Macedonian minority in Greece was raised.

Mr Pangalos said there was no such minority, and the Rainbow organisation, which claims to represent it, was a grouping of Stalinists, homosexuals and Slavo-Macedonians.

The two sides also said the question of the name "Macedonia", to which Greece objects because of its region of the same name, remained on hold.