NATO head urges FYROM to end dispute with Greece, reform

NATO's secretary-general urged the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Thursday to solve its 25-year-old name dispute with alliance member Greece and proceed with wide-ranging reforms if it wants its membership bid to succeed.

Jens Stoltenberg said he "strongly welcomes" the small Balkan country's efforts to join NATO - a decade after the dispute with neighboring Greece halted an earlier accession effort.

"But while it is good to be ambitious, it is also important to be realistic," Stoltenberg said in an address to lawmakers in parliament in the capital, Skopje.

"There is still much hard work to be done," he added. "That means, of course, resolving the issue of your country's name. It's an issue that has weighed on this region - and this country - for far too long."

Stoltenberg said he welcomes the willingness and resolve to solve the name issue...