Pahor said Slovenia would continue to support Serbia's EU bid. He said Serbia should continue pursuing reforms, Serbia's Tanjug press agency reported quoting a press release from Nikolić's office.

Nikolić meanwhile described Slovenia as a key trade partner and said the two countries should jointly venture to third markets.

Pahor had billed the meeting as a preparation for the Brdo Process summit. The press release from Nikolić's office mentions the meeting as one of the topics broached.

The Slovenian president had been expected to meet Nikolić ahead of the regional summit in Budva, after the Serbian president skipped a get-together of regional leaders in Slovenia earlier this week.

Neither Nikolić nor Albanian President Bujar Nishani joined their counterparts from the remaining six countries of the Brdo Process in attending a meeting of business executives from SE Europe on Monday.

Pahor has downplayed the significance of the two leaders being absent from the Summit100 proceedings.

But it was clear from the political talks on the margins of the event that relations in the region have been strained by recent developments in Macedonia, something Pahor also confirmed in his statements to the press a couple of days ago.

Pahor's office said after today's meeting that Nikolić would come to Budva.

The president's determined that "some political and security challenges" had appeared in the past year that require "a strong commitment by the leaders for a peaceful resolution."

In this context they see the meeting in Budva is "useful and pertinent, but under the condition that the leaders, despite differences in positions, will candidly speak their viewpoints and opinions," Pahor's office said.

Nikolić also accepted an invitation from Pahor to pay an official visit to Slovenia on 10 October.