TIRANA, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Greek President Karolos Papoulias said on Tuesday that he would not visit Macedonia until the name dispute between the two neighbors has been resolved.

    "I would like to visit the FYROM after the obstacle of the name issue has been removed," Papoulias said in a letter, in answer to his Macedonian counterpart Gjorge Ivanov's invitation.

    FYROM stands for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, under which the small western Balkan country entered the United Nations in 1993 after declaring independence from former Yugoslavia.

    Greece has been opposed to its northern neighbor being called Macedonia, arguing that the name implies that the country has territorial demands over Greek northern province of the same name.

    "I must stress that the longer the search for a name solution lasts, the longer the FYROM's accession to the EU and NATO is hindered," says Papoulias in the letter.

    He said that he hopes to have the opportunity to visit his northern neighbor as soon as this difference in the name dispute between the two countries is in the past.

    Greece has vetoed Macedonia's NATO aspirations last year over the name dispute and the EU has postponed a decision on opening accession talks with Macedonia due to the dispute.

    The EU foreign ministers said in a meeting at the beginning of this month that the issue would not be discussed again until the Spanish EU presidency, which runs from January 1 to June 30, 2010.