Greece has become the biggest investor in its northern Balkan neighbor, Macedonia, AKI reports.

Greek investments in Macedonia over the past ten years have reached over one billion euros and Athens is among Macedonia’s four leading trade partners, Netpress news agency said.

Yet the two countries have been locked in a 17-year-long dispute over Macedonia’s name ever since the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.

Athens objects to the name 'Macedonia' saying it implies territorial pretensions towards a northern Greek province with the same name.

Skopje has so far refused to change the country’s name, and continuing United Nations efforts to mediate the dispute have failed to produce results.

As a result Greece, which is a member of NATO and the European Union, blocked Macedonia’s entry into the military alliance at its summit in Bucharest, Romania, in April until the dispute is resolved.

Macedonia's Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski last month added to his country's dispute with Greece by raising with his Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis the issue of minority ethnic Albanian rights.

Gruevsky claimed the several hundred thousand ethnic Macedonians who had fled northern Greece during the 1946-1949 civil war had been banned from returning and reclaiming their property.

Gruevski said most of of the refugees now lived in Macedonia and should have the right to dual Macedonian-Greek citizenship and the return of their property.

He also demanded minority rights for Macedonians in Greece, education in their mother tongue and respect for their cultural traditions.