Recent police operation have demonstrated that the Government and the Interior Ministry use non-selective and determined fight against crime and corruption, Premier Nikola Gruevski told reporters.

In December, MoI concluded two police operations successfully after arresting 87 toll-road workers for allegedly stealing about 2 million Euros and 50 people including police forensics officers on charges of faking car accidents to claim insurance payouts.

"Law-enforcement officers are trained well to deal with this kind of organised crime. MoI has established sound capacities in recent years and such operations will be conducted in the future," the PM said.

"I would like to emphasize that Macedonia is one of the countries having great success not only in persecuting and punishing crime in general, but also in detecting crime committed by law-enforcement officers by abusing their post. We have pledged before the citizens in our election campaign that crime and corruption will be fought with determination," Gruevski stated.

He added that everyone would be treated equally based on firm evidence regardless of ethnic, national or religious affiliation.

Asked to comment Athens' silence following his second initiative for a meeting with New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, PM Gruevski responded: "The letter was sent only a few days ago. We need to be patient."

When asked whether the banking sector was prepared to protect itself from the euro zone crisis, Gruevski said that Macedonia had one of the soundest banking systems in Europe.

"Banks that are pretty stable without being exposed to risks that some of the banks in Europe are facing. Our banks are supervised by the Central Bank and meet standards guaranteeing that a crisis cannot be spilled into Macedonia, which could affect the banking sector," he added.

"Europe's crisis is most likely to hit the real sector, i.e. it will affect the export and GDP," according to Gruevski.

However, he added, when it comes to the banking sector, I can say that citizens' deposits are rising. Banking standards are being fully implemented, the Central Bank is conducting an excellent supervision and the Denar is stable.

The PM said that he was informed at a recent meeting with the governor of the National Bank about all of the parameters carefully focused on the risks coming from Europe. "It was concluded that the banking sector in Macedonia is pretty firm and safe opposite the risks coming from the eurozone," Gruevski stressed.