BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak President Michal Kováč was quoted on Monday as saying he still believed Slovakia had a chance to be included in the first group of countries to begin membership talks with the European Union after an EU summit in December in Luxembourg. "I am doing all I can in the belief that this could help reverse the course of events regarding the December summit in Luxembourg," Kováč said in an interview with the independent daily newspaper Pravda. Slovakia, once a leading contender for EU and NATO membership, has come under fire from the West over its lack of committment to democracy and was not among countries recommended for early EU membership talks or invited to join the defence alliance. "I know very well that declarations will not help, but only concrete steps," Kováč said, referring to a statement last Friday, in which he and Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar reiterated Slovakia's goal of being among the first candidates to join the EU. In the statement, the two otherwise sworn political enemies pledged to coordinate their diplomatic efforts to support Slovakia's integration hopes. "Full integration of Slovakia in the EU...remains the unaltered priority of Slovak foreign policy," it said. However, Kováč said in the newspaper interview that the statement did not include all the moves neccessary to overturn the so far unfavourable developments for Slovakia's EU membership. Kováč said the case of František Gaulieder, a former member of parliament stripped of his mandate after he quit Mečiar's ruling Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) last year, was the most controversial item. He saw little chance of agreement on it between Mečiar's ruling coalition and the opposition. At the end of September, the Slovak parliament voted to ignore a Constitutional Court ruling saying Gaulieder's expulsion from parliament was unconstitutional and called on parliament to redress its decision. In their statement Kováč and Mečiar pledged to call a political truce and refrain from mutual invective, but appeared to have quickly forgotten their promise. On Friday evening Mečiar said in a radio interview that Kováč had broken the law by drawing his presidential salary a month before he had been installed in office. Kováč in a statement on Monday said this was untrue. The European Commission said in July the constant political bickering between the president and prime minister was one factor undermining democracy in Slovakia.