Bratislava - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and his Hungarian counterpart Ferenc Gyurcsany failed to thaw icy relations between their countries in a meeting called to stem nationalist tensions.

While the leaders called for cooperation after their meeting in the border town of Komarno, they mostly engaged in a stinging exchange that did more to highlight their disagreements than signal a quick way out of the crisis.

"The biggest problem is the export of fascism and extremism from Hungarian territory to Slovakia," Fico said at a press conference televised on the TA3 news channel.

Bratislava - Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and his Hungarian counterpart Ferenc Gyurcsany were meeting in the border town of Komarno-Revkomarom to discuss recent tensions between their two countries.

Hungarian right-wing extremists have demonstrated in recent weeks over territorial claims in Slovakia, which was once part of Hungary.

Fico has accused the Hungarian government of not doing anything to halt the demonstrations.

Meanwhile, Budapest has criticized Slovakia for the brutal treatment meted out by Slovakian police to right-wing extremists attending a football match in the southern Slovakian town of Dunajska Streda, also known as Dunaszerdahely in Hungarian.

Bratislava - Slovakia's inflation declined for the first time this year as the central European country prepares to switch to the euro on January 1, government data showed Wednesday.

The annual inflation rate fell to 5.1 per cent in October, from the 2008 peak of 5.4 per cent recorded in September, the Slovak Statistical Office said.

Consumer prices had climbed since January when the indicator stood at 3.8 per cent, the data showed.

The first former Soviet satellite to enter Europe's monetary union, Slovakia has pledged to rein in inflation as part of its euro- adoption deal with the European Central Bank and the European Union.

Bratislava - Attention, travellers to Slovakia: beware of drunken bears.

Bears will eat fruit that has fallen to the ground and fermented, and while the fruit's alcohol content is low, bears can eat such large amounts that they become tipsy, Slovakian forestry expert Miroslav Saniga said.

Befuddled bears have been known to approach humans, and they will attack if they feel provoked, Slovakia's TASR news agency quoted Saniga on Monday as saying.

Slovakia's biggest risk zone is the Velka Fatra mountains, which include a national park, in the centre of the East European nation, Saniga said.

Bratislava - More than 50 people were injured in nationalistic-fuelled violence at a football game in south-western Slovakia.

Thirty-one people were arrested in Saturday's rioting - 18 fans for the home team in Dunajska Streda, one of the most important centres for Slovakia's ethnic Hungarian minority, and 13 from the away team from Bratislava, a police spokeswoman in Bratislava said.

Violence had been feared ahead of the championship game between AC Dunajska Streda and Slovan Bratislava as hundreds of football hooligans and neo-Nazis from Hungary were expected to travel to the match.

Bratislava - Slovakia, which will switch to the euro on January 1, has no immediate plans to match the European Central Bank's interest-rate cut, a national bank spokeswoman said Thursday.

Slovakia's financial sector has an adequate capital base and enough liquidity to operate at current borrowing costs, spokeswoman Jana Kovacova said.

The Slovakian National Bank will bring interest rates back in line with the ECB at some point before joining the eurozone, she said.

The ECB joined the US, British, Canadian, Swiss and Swedish central banks Wednesday in slashing rates by half a percentage point in a bid to prop up tumbling stock markets and ease frozen-up credit markets.

The move left the ECB's lead rate at 3.75 per cent.