LJUBLJANA, Nov 27, 2008 (AFP) - France is helping ease a long-running border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia that has threatened Zagreb's EU prospects, Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor said here Thursday.
    "I believe things are going in the right direction," Pahor told journalists about the diplomatic initiative launched by France, which currently holds the EU presidency.
    The European Commission has said it expects Croatia to join the EU in 2010, but Slovenia, which entered the bloc in 2004, has held up progress due to a dispute with its neighbour over their borders, drawn up after independence in 1991.
    Ljubljana accuses Zagreb of trying to use EU membership talks to impose a fait accompli, arguing that Croatia presented Brussels with documentation that reflected its own position on the common sea and land border.