No agreement on Slovak-Hungarian minority rights body

Slovakia and Hungary have failed to make further progress in implementing the friendship treaty they signed in 1995.

Following talks between the two sides in Budapest, the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Laszlo Kovacs, said a cooperation protocol had been signed but Hungary had refused to accept Slovakia's proposed candidates to a joint minority rights committee.

Mr Kovacs said Hungary had asked its Slovak minority to name its own delegates and the same should apply to the Hungarian minority in Slovakia.

There is a coalition of three Hungarian political parties in the Slovak parliament with a joint share of over ten percent of the vote.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service