NATO's secretary general is meeting Macedonian officials to discuss the country's renewed accession bid, a decade after a dispute with neighboring Greece halted an initial effort to join the alliance.

Jens Stoltenberg met Macedonian president Gjorge Ivanov, as well as the ministers of defense and foreign affairs in the capital Skopje Thursday.

He will also meet with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, and address a Parliament session.

Officials in Greece and Macedonia, where Zaev's government took over last year, have voiced hopes their decades-long quarrel over Macedonia's name can be resolved within months.

NATO member Greece blocked Macedonia's bid to join the alliance in 2008 due to the dispute. Athens says the name Macedonia implies territorial claims on its own northern province of Macedonia. Macedonia denies that.