Athens will not abandon the UN process for resolving the name issue with Macedonia and is not afraid and has no reason to shun direct contact with Skopje, said Greece's Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas speaking before the parliamentary committees on foreign and European affairs.

- Greece will not abandon the UN-brokered talks, but it will continue to have direct contact with the neighbouring country. We are not afraid of it because we believe that it can help the process further, Droutsas said responding to remarks made by ex-foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis that recent meetings between countries' prime ministers, George Papandreou and Nikola Gruevski, could trigger renewed pressure from the European Union for Greece to hold direct talks with Skopje.

Droutsas admitted that Greece was under considerable pressure from the EU to find a solution through direct bilateral talks, noting that these pressures were likely to continue, but insisted that Greece would not submit to this because its positions were clear.

- We have laid down a national red line, which envisages that the definitive solution is a complex name with geographical qualification of the term Macedonia for all purposes and for all uses, he underlined.

The accountability for name talks failure was once again tossed to the Macedonian side. - By sticking to its stance it is distancing itself from the EU perspective. Athens is waiting to see how Skopje will read Athens' clear and non-negotiable message, Droutsas stressed.