US grants Macedonia its name recognition

WASHINGTON -- Deciding to bear the wrath of NATO ally Greece, the United States has recognized the small Balkan nation of Macedonia under its constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia.

A State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, announced the move yesterday, saying it was ''an appropriate and correct step at this juncture . . . to support a path of openness, stability, and democracy in Macedonia."

In an overture to the Greeks, Boucher also said the United States had gone ''out of our way to make clear to the Greek government, to the Greek people that this is not a decision that is in any way directed at them or intended to offend them. It was what we thought was the right thing to continue a progress toward stability in the region."

In Athens, Foreign Minister Petros Moliviatis of Greece said he summoned the US ambassador to Greece, Thomas Miller, to lodge a formal complaint. ''I also pointed out the multiple negative consequences of such a unilateral move," he said.

President Branko Crvenkovski of Macedonia hailed the US decision as the country's biggest diplomatic victory since it gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and later joined the United Nations under the name ''Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," or FYRM, to sidestep Greek objections.

Greece has contended for decades that the use of the name Macedonia implied territorial claims toward Greece.

Greece, the European Union, and international organizations use the FYRM acronym to refer to Macedonia. The EU said yesterday it has no plans for now to change its policy on the name.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell called Moliviatis yesterday to explain the decision after US officials in Athens told Greek Foreign Ministry officials of the decision Wednesday night, Boucher said.

Powell told Moliviatis the decision was unrelated to President Bush's reelection Tuesday, and was ''not designed to be the first [foreign policy] decision after the US election in any way," the spokesman said.

Boucher also rejected a reporter's suggestion that the United States decided the benefits for Macedonia from the decision outweighed Greek hostility, saying, ''It's not just a two-part equation."

The spokesman said a factor in the move -- which department officials have been reviewing for months if not years -- was a referendum this weekend in Macedonia in which the government of Prime Minister Hari Kostov faces a challenge from nationalist opposition on a centralization law that would give the Balkan country's ethnic Albanians more power.

Kostov staunchly opposes the referendum, which aims to quash legislation giving control over a number of municipalities to the restive ethnic Albanians, who make up about a quarter of the country's 2.2 million people. The United States and EU officials have urged Macedonians not to participate in the vote.

Since it broke away from Yugoslavia, Macedonia has been a staunch ally of the United States and has sent troops to US-led missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.