Skopje - Central European heads of state will gather on Friday in the Macedonian town of Ohrid for a two-day summit on EU enlargement process and its impact on national economies.

Macedonian president Branko Crvenkovski will be the host of the event which is expected to gather delegations from 19 countries and 17 presidents.

Macedonia was not invited to join NATO during the April summit in Bucharest over its name dispute with neighbouring Greece. Athens views Macedonia's name as implying a territorial claim on Greece's northern province and it has blocked its entry into NATO.

Macedonia was bitterly disappointed over not being invited to join NATO which caused the parliament to dissolve and early parliamentary elections to be called for June 1.

President Crvenkovski views the summit as an opportunity to once again affirm Macedonia's interest in Euro Atlantic integrations. (dpa)