Bratislava  - Slovakia has partially relaxed its controversial law requiring the ending "ova" to be added to women's name on official documents.

Until now, a Slovak woman who married a German national by the name of Mueller, for example, had to list herself on all official Slovak documents as Meuellerova.

This will change conditionally in early 2009 under the new law. From then, a woman in such a situation can use the simple name, Mueller, on her driver's licence and other Slovak documents.

However, this will only be permitted if in addition to her Slovak citizenship she has citizenship in another country in which the "ova" ending is not used.

The goal of the new law is to prevent the same woman having a different name on documents from various states.

Neither the Slovak Interior Ministry, which introduced the proposal to change the law, nor the parliament could decide on a radical way to exempt Slovak women without citizenship in another country from adding "ova" to their name.

In Slovakia, the ending "ova" does not apply to members of the 15 per cent of the Slovak population that are national minorities.

Thus the Hungarian-speaking wife of a Hungarian man named Nagy doesn't have to change her name to Nagyova, rather she can list herself on all documents as Mrs Nagy.

In some civil offices where marriage certificates are issued officials are recommending a very easy solution that is in accordance with the old law.

A Slovak woman with only Slovak citizenship who marries a man named Mueller, but doesn't want to be called Muellerova, can declare herself a member of the German minority on her wedding day.

She may then be registered as Mrs Mueller instead of Mrs Muellerova on her marriage certificate and can have all other documents changed to suit her preference.

The surname remains on all documents even if one day later she declares herself a Slovak national again (unless she petitions later for a change to Muellerova).

Membership of an ethnic group is unrestricted for all citizens of Slovakia.

They are free to decide for themselves what group they belong to and this decision theoretically can change on a daily basis. (dpa)