VIENNA (AFP) -- Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said that Athens will maintain its opposition to Macedonia's NATO membership until the two countries' dispute over its name is resolved.

""We cannot be allied as long as we have bad neighborly relations,"" she said at the end of a meeting in Vienna with her Austrian counterpart Michael Spindelegger.
Bakoyannis also criticized Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's constant ""nationalist rhetoric"" and ""excessive provoking of the Greek people.""
Greece and Macedonia have been at loggerheads over the right to the name Macedonia -- which is shared by a northern Greek province -- since the former Yugoslav republic proclaimed independence in 1991.
In April, Greece used its veto to block an invitation for Skopje to join NATO and has been threatening to prevent Macedonia's integration into the European Union.
Brussels is yet to set a date for membership talks to begin for Macedonia, which was made an official EU candidate in December 2005. But the name dispute has been one of the main stumbling blocks on Macedonia's path towards EU integration.
On Monday international think tank, International Crisis Group, said the name dispute is putting an EU and NATO strategy to stabilize the Balkans ""at risk.""