Slovakia set for motorway protest
By Rob Cameron
BBC
Slovak President Rudolf Schuster has met leaders of the Roma gypsy minority to try and avert a planned blockade of the country's borders and motorways.

Roma groups say they will bring traffic to a standstill on Monday, unless riot police and troops are withdrawn from settlements in Eastern Slovakia.

The security forces were deployed there on Wednesday after more than a week of looting.

The Slovak president said he supported the withdrawal of the forces.

President Schuster met the leaders of two Roma organisations on Sunday in Kosice, eastern Slovakia.

Welfare benefits

Mr Schuster called on the Roma leaders not to go ahead with Monday's blockade, but said he supported their demands for around 2,500 police and soldiers to be withdrawn from nearby Roma settlements.

Mr Schuster was due to hold more talks on Sunday with members of the cabinet.

The widespread looting was a response to cuts in social benefits introduced by the centre-right government, which has vowed to slash public spending.

However unemployment among Slovakia's Roma community runs as high as 100 % in places, and state handouts are often all they have to live on.

The government has since moved to soften the reforms, offering to pay higher benefits to those who do community service.