Bratislava  - The heads of state of the four Visegrad Group members began a two-day meeting in the Slovakian spa city of Piestany on Friday.

The meeting was being attended by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom and Polish President Lech Kaczynski as well as host Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic.

Next to a range of ceremonial events, the four heads of state are to discuss European Union enlargement, and external EU relations with particular reference to the current conflict in the Caucasus. The four were also to discuss a possible joint development aid policy.

The presidents of Hungary and Slovakia are also to hold a bilateral meeting Saturday in the south-western Slovak city of Nitra.

The Slovak-Hungarian talks were set to discuss the presence of Hungarian and Slovak minorities that are in the each others' countries as well as educational policies.

Formed in 1991 as a forum for cooperation by Hungary, Poland and the then Czechoslovakia, the Visegrad Group has the Benelux countries as its inspiration. The Visegrad four joined the European Union together in 2004. (dpa)