Budapest - The leader of Hungary's opposition centre-right Fidesz party, Viktor Orban, said Monday the government should reduce taxes and interest rates to kickstart the economy.

Orban criticized the minority Socialist government for sticking to an austerity drive that started back in 2006 when Hungary had the highest budget deficit in the EU, at
9.2 per cent of gross domestic product.

He said the 20 million-euro credit line offered jointly by the IMF, EU and World Bank at the end of October to shore up an economy on the brink of collapse could now be used to fund growth-stimulating tax and interest rate cuts.

Budapest - Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom met his Slovak counterpart Ivan Gasparovic on Saturday in the latest bid to defuse language and minority rights tensions between their countries.

The meeting of the two men in the Slovak town of Nove Zamky was the latest in a series of diplomatic moves aimed at easing long- standing tensions between the two countries.

Solyom and Gasparovic agreed on the use of dual Hungarian and Slovak place names in textbooks designed for use in ethnic Hungarian schools, a measure approved by the Slovak parliament on Wednesday.

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.

Budapest  - Turkey has accepted a Hungarian proposal to set up an international advocacy body to push for the quick realisation of the planned Nabucco gas pipeline, the head of a Hungarian committee said on Wednesday after talks.

The Turkish parliamentary trade and energy commissioner Soner Aksoy was in Budapest heading his country's delegation for talks with the leaders of the Hungarian parliament's ad hoc Nabucco committee.

After the meeting, the committee chairman Janos Koka told the state news agency MTI that Aksoy had expressed support for Hungary's recent proposal to set up an Nabucco advocacy committee.

Bratislava - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico rejected Wednesday demands by his Hungarian counterpart Ferenc Gyurcsany aimed at easing nationalist tensions between the two historical foes.

At a November 15 meeting in Slovakia, Gyurcsany among others asked Fico to allow use of Hungarian textbooks in minority schools, set up an ombudsman for minorities and jointly investigate cases of minority rights violations.

"There is no reason for any adjustments as the legal protection of minority rights is on the European level," the CTK news agency cited Fico as saying.

Budapest - Thousands of public sector workers took to the streets in the Hungarian capital on Saturday to protest against a pay freeze and the abolition of end-of-year bonuses.

Many streets in central Budapest were closed to traffic on Saturday morning as public sector workers vented their anger over the proposed cutbacks, which are part of the government's cost-cutting budget bill.

Members of some 30 unions representing workers from different branches of the public sector braved icy rain to meet at several points around the city before gathering in front of the parliament building.