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| Slovenia unblocks Croatian EU bid | |
| (31 minutes later) | |
| Slovenia says it is ready to lift its block on Croatia's bid to join the European Union. | Slovenia says it is ready to lift its block on Croatia's bid to join the European Union. |
| The announcement came after talks between Prime Minister Borut Pahor and his Croat counterpart Jadranka Kosor. | The announcement came after talks between Prime Minister Borut Pahor and his Croat counterpart Jadranka Kosor. |
| They also said they had agreed that a continuing 18-year-old border dispute would not prejudice Croatia's accession talks with the EU. | |
| Slovenia had blocked Croatia's EU negotiations since December because of the border dispute. | Slovenia had blocked Croatia's EU negotiations since December because of the border dispute. |
| Prime Minister Pahor said the government would immediate propose to parliament that "Slovenia removes restraints for Croatia's EU negotiating process". | |
| For her part, Croatia's prime minister said she had faxed a letter to the Swedish EU presidency saying they had "reached an agreement on the continuation of talks with the EU and continuation of the border talks". | |
| "No document can be prejudicial to the final border solution," Ms Kosor added. | |
| Croatia had hoped to complete accession talks with the EU this year, and become the 28th member of the bloc by 2010 or 2011. | |
| International mediation | |
| The border row dates back to 1991, when the two countries declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. | |
| The dispute centres mainly on the small bay of Piran in the Adriatic Sea. | |
| Border row heats up | |
| Croatia has wanted the border to be drawn down the middle of the bay. | |
| But Slovenia, which has a much shorter coastline than its neighbour, fears this would deny its ships direct passage to the high seas. | |
| Last December, Slovenia vetoed a large chunk of the talks, saying Croatia had provided maps and documents in the EU negotiations that would have prejudged a solution to the border dispute. | |
| The two prime ministers said on Friday talks on the border issue would continue with international mediation, Reuters news agency reports. |