Budapest  - The Hungarian government on Thursday called it "regrettable" that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had rejected a package of measures aimed at improving diplomatic relations offered by Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany.

On the same day, former Slovak prime minister Mikulas Dzurinda blamed both governments for fomenting ethnic nationalist sentiment.

"Hungary does not understand, and regrets the response, but will implement its own recommendations regardless of the Slovak position," government spokeswoman Bernadett Budai said on Thursday. She noted that Hungary has yet to receive official notification of Fico's position.

Speaking the day before, Fico had rejected a package of proposals that Gyurcsany made during tense bilateral talks on November 15.

The meeting took place two weeks after a football game at which Slovak police used force against ethnic Hungarian fans. The incident led to extremists in Hungary burning the Slovak flag in front of that country's embassy.

Gyurcsany called for Hungary and Slovakia to appoint ombudsmen, and to conduct joint investigations into any violations of minority rights. The Hungarian prime minister also suggested that the governments of each country provide additional funds for ethnic minority education and culture, while allowing the use of school textbooks from the "mother" country.

On Wednesday, Fico said Slovakia already had the best systems in Europe for protecting minority rights. "There is no justification for modifying the rights of minorities, nor of increasing material support and offering even greater advantages to Slovak Hungarians," he said.

The former Slovak prime minister Mikulas Dzurinda, speaking on Thursday at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin, criticised both countries for fiddling while Rome burns.

"Socialist politicians on both sides of the Danube (which forms most of the Hungarian-Slovak border) are incapable of solving real problems and finding an answer to current global challenges," he told the Hungarian state news agency MTI. Dzurinda said the Hungarian and Slovak governments were instead concentrating on nationalist politics.

Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom is due to meet his Slovak counterpart Ivan Gasparovic in Slovakia on Saturday.

According to the 2001 census, ethnic Hungarians make up almost 10 per cent of Slovakia's population of 5.4 million, while 40,000 of almost 10 million Hungarians declared themselves to be ethnic Slovaks. (dpa)