Adamantios Vasilakis

FYROM (Macedonian) Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani has met with Greek government officials in Athens in an effort to settle a decades-old dispute over the name Macedonia.

"We are committed to finding a solution in this six months," said Osmani after the talks on January 9.

United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz said Tuesday that the decades-old name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) "can and must be resolved next year."

"There is a real push for some resolution in the next months," he said Tuesday in Brussels, where negotiations have resumed after a three-year hiatus.

The fresh round of talks in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday on the long-standing name dispute comes amid a recent improvement of relations between neighbouring Greece and Macedonia, which has sparked increased optimism in Brussels and Washington for an early breakthrough.

Matthew Nimetz, the United Nations special mediator in negotiations aimed at resolving a longstanding dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia regarding the latter's official name is scheduled to meet diplomats on November 20 and 21, according to FYROM'S Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.