The Taiwanese Prime Minister, Vincent Siew, has arrivied in Macedonia with a large Taiwanese business delegation to discuss economic aid and investment.

Macedonia is one of only a few countries to recognise Taiwan, and says its economy was hit especially hard by the crisis in neighbouring Kosovo.

Mr Siew is to meet the Macedonian Prime Minister, Ljubco Georgievski, and the Foreign Minister, Aleksandar Dimitrov; but he is not scheduled to see President Kiro Gligorov, who criticised his government's recognition of Taiwan, which led to a rift with China. In an interview with the BBC, Mr Dimitrov said Taiwan had promised to invest hundreds-of-millions of dollars in a new tax-favoured export zone near the capital, Skopje, which would create twenty-thousand jobs in Macedonia.