Speaking to reporters after meeting Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, Pahor said that the proposal for joint diplomatic offices with Serbia was unacceptable to Slovenia and that he did not see any need for it.

Pahor explained that he and Cvetkovic discussed Slovenia's taking over the building of the former Yugoslav embassy in Rome as part of an agreement between the successor states of four years ago, which has not happened yet.

Serbia cited the still existing financial reasons to explain why it could not transfer the ownership of the embassy to Slovenia, but a compromise solution was found to satisfy both countries' interests. It was agreed that Slovenia would take over from Serbia the former Yugoslav embassy building in Rome by September 2011 at the latest, said Pahor.

Speculation about the possible establishment of joint embassies in buildings that were once owned by the former Yugoslavia and that have not been divided among the successor states, for reasons of rationalisation and saving in the current time of crisis, appeared in the media also after a recent meeting between Pahor and Croatian PM Jadranka Kosor.

Pahor dismissed the speculation at the time, saying that it was probably due to a misinterpretation of his talks with Kosor.

Pahor said that he and Kosor had actually talked about the need to speed up the process of division of diplomatic offices of the former federation among the successor states, and the possibility of settling that issue together with financial and other issues that remained open after the break-up of the former federation.

Slovenian media say that by the end of 2011 Serbia must vacate 24 of a total of 44 buildings housing diplomatic offices of the former Yugoslavia which it has been using since the disintegration of the former state, and cede them to other successor states.

Concrete deadlines for that are to be agreed by representatives of the successor states at their next meeting, according to Slovenian media.