Zoran Zaev

Macedonian opposition leader Zoran Zaev, who heads socialist SDSM, is due in Bulgaria on Friday.

A day earlier his party's website informed of the visit, adding he would meet both leaders of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and state officials.

No schedule of the visit has been made public.

The leader of Macedonia's opposition Social Democrats Zoran Zaev will pay one-day visit to neighbouring Bulgaria on Friday, the party has announced.

Zaev is expected to meet high-ranking Bulgarian officials as well as leaders of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), according to the announcement posted on the website of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) on Thursday.

Speaking on a stage in front of the government headquarters in Skopje, opposition Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev said he expected the crisis over the illegal surveillance scandal in Macedonia to end soon with the aid of international mediation.

Zoran Zaev, leader of Macedonia's opposition Social Democrats, expects the political crisis in the country to be resolved by the end of June.

The covertly-recorded tapes of Macedonian officials' conversations that the opposition says it plans to publish soon could undermine the official story about the six men convicted of the murders at Smilkovci Lake near Skopje in 2012, the head of the opposition Social Democrats, Zoran Zaev, said on Wednesday.

A third meeting of Macedonian political leaders has failed to produce any tangible results, local media outlets say.

Heads of four parties held another round of talks in the country's capital Skopje amid a political crisis, with socialist opposition leader Zoran Zaev demanding the government's resignation in a wiretapping scandal.

Macedonian leaders meet in Skopje on Tuesday for talks on the country's crisis facilitated by the US ambassador, Jess Baily, and the EU ambassador, Aivo Orav.

Macedonian opposition SDSM leader Zoran Zaev dismissed the speculation of partitioning or federalisation of the country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed on Wednesday that there were plans for the partitioning of Macedonia between Bulgaria and Albania.

The Macedonian government plane carrying Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to Skopje from Strasbourg has made an emergency landing in Zurich over an unspecified malfunction, MIA news agency reported on Thursday.

The prime minister and the other passengers on board are safe, MIA quoted government spokesman Aleksandar Gjorgiev as saying.

We are currently in the process of negotiating. The talks, however, have not started yet in the words of opposition leader of the Macedonian social democrats Zoran Zaev.

He made the statement upon arriving in Skopje after the ten-hour negotiations with Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski in Strassburg.