FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Slovak Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda said on Thursday he believed that by the end of the year his country would be ready to join the front-runners for European Union membership. Dzurinda, whose country was dropped from the first wave of applicants, said necessary reforms were on track and should allow Slovakia catch up with other leading EU hopefuls. "We have decided (with EU External Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek) to create a high level working group by which we are trying to accelerate all processes," Dzurinda told Reuters Television. "I am absolutely sure that by the end of this year Slovakia will be on the same level as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland and that is the reason why I`m optimistic and I am sure that Slovakia will be invited," he said. The EU decided last year to begin talks with the Czech Republic, Slovakia`s former federation partner, and well as with Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Cyprus. Slovakia fulfilled the economic criteria for admission to the talks but was excluded because of the heavy-handed rule of former Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar`s government. Dzurinda said he would seek to revive the so-called Visegrad Group, set up in 1994 by the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia with the aim of coordinating the countries` drive to join the EU.

BUDAPEST - NATO must continue its eastward enlargement after the first three former Warsaw Pact members enter the Alliance, the prime ministers of Italy and Hungary said on Thursday. "We have agreed that NATO must maintain an `open doors` policy," Italian Prime Minister Massimo D`Alema said at a joint news conference with Hungary`s Viktor Orban. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic will be the first former Soviet satellites to officially become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on Friday at a ceremony in Independence, Missouri. The two prime ministers agreed on the principle of further expansion but differed on priorities. D`Alema said that Slovenia, Romania and at a later stage Bulgaria should be considered as new member candidates. Orban said Slovakia should be given the opportunity to join the Alliance as soon as possible, in recognition of the country`s recent advances in the democratic process. Slovakia has a large ethnic Hungarian minority and improving relations with its northern neighbour has long been a high priority of Hungary`s foreign policy.