(ANSA) - SKOPJE, SEPT. 24 - Macedonia's president, Gjorgje Ivanov (conservative party), said he will not vote in the September 30 referendum on the agreement with Greece on the new name of his country (Northern Macedonia), an agreement he has strongly opposed. ''I already voted 27 years ago, on September 8, 1991, when in a referendum I was asked to vote in favour of a sovereign and independent Macedonia'', said the president, taken by the media in Skopje. ''I twice was asked by our citizens - he added - not to change the constitution in order to insert into it a different name for our country, not to accept ideas and proposals which are dangerous for Macedonian national identity and language. I do not intend to renounce these convictions of mine, that is why I will not go to the polls on September 30''.

The international community has included the approval of the agreement with Greece as one of the conditions for the acceleration in Skopje's accession to EU and Nato. Ivanov and the conservative opposition party Vmro-Dpmne, despite being in favour of Macedonia's Euroatlantic integration, are opposed to the agreement signed with Athens last June, because they believe this deal is unconstitutional and detrimental to the contry's interests. (ANSA).