81.   Meanwhile Hungary and Romania pledged to resume negotiations on the status of the two-million-strong Hungarian minority living in Romania.

82.   Protection of minority rights was a key issue, with Hungarian minorities in the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia particularly affected.

83.   Romania warned its large Hungarian minority on Tuesday to avoid the sensitive issue of its political status within Romania at an upcoming international Hungarian congress.

84.   Slovak deputies have adopted a law allowing bilingual road signs in districts with large Hungarian minorities, officials here said Friday.

85.   Slovakia has criticised a recent Hungarian report to the Council of Europe on the situation of the Hungarian ethnic minority there.

86.   Szentivanyi noted that the text would be the first signed by Hungary with a country which has fewer ethnic Hungarian minority citizens than its own minority in Hungary.

87.   Speaking at a press conference organised by the World Federation of Hungarians, he charged that the Romanian government wanted to provoke its Hungarian minority into violence.

88.   The area has a sizeable Hungarian minority.

89.   The Democratic Union of Romanian Magyars, which reperesents the Hungarian minority and supports the new parliamentary majority, is also taking part.

90.   The new Romanian government will include representatives of the Hungarian minority, the president of the Democratic Union of Romanian Magyars Marko Bela said Wednesday.