Bratislava - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Slovakia Thursday for her first visit to the ex-communist country that went independent 15 years ago and became an economic success story.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, came off a trip to Slovenia, a smaller country to the south that once was part of Yugoslavia.

Bratislava - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was to arrive in Slovakia Thursday for her first visit to the ex-communist country that went independent 15 years ago and became an economic success story.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, were coming off a trip to Slovenia, a smaller country to the south that once was part of Yugoslavia.

In Slovakia, the queen was to meet Thursday with President Ivan Gasparovic, Prime Minister Robert Fico and Sir Nicholas Winton, 99, a Briton who saved hundreds of mostly Czechoslovak Jewish children from Nazi concentration camps on the eve of World War II.

Bratislava - Slovakia wants to buy back a 49-per-cent share in the country's chief gas supplier SPP from E. ON Ruhrgas and Gaz de France, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Friday.

The state would pay around 130 billion Slovak koruny (5.7 billion dollars) for the stake.

Slovakia sold the minority stake in SPP in 2002, under the previous government of pro-market premier Mikulas Dzurinda. As part of the deal, the foreign investors received a majority on firm's board.

Washington - US President George W Bush met with Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic on Thursday and assured him the United States was acting swifty to contain the economic damage caused by the finance crisis.

"I assured him that the United States will take strong action in dealing with the current economic situation," Bush said at the White House.

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.

Bratislava - The Slovak government Wednesday agreed to provide unlimited guarantees for bank deposits of individuals and small businesses, officials said.

The proposal, in line with such decision taken by Germany and Austria, requires parliamentary approval.

Slovakia currently protects 90 per cent of deposits up to 600,000 Slovak koruny (27,000 dollars).

Slovak banks contribute 0.2 per cent of new deposits to a compensation fund. The government so far does not propose to increase the payments, according to spokesman Branislav Ondrus.