Greece to create Alexander the Great museum
Greece will dedicate a museum to Alexander the Great in the northern town of Pella, his birthplace and the seat of the Macedonian kingdom that ruled an empire from Europe to India, an official said Friday.

Expected to be ready by late 2008, the new museum will contain mosaics, weapons, jewellery and other finds from a 20-year excavation of the Pella archaeological site, an official at the culture ministry's museums department told AFP.

In recent years, Greece has faced a challenge from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the spiritual rights to Alexander's heritage and has been at pains to stress that the ancient Macedonians were Greek. But the tiny Balkan nation, which became independent after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, has staked a claim as it lies on what was once part of ancient Macedonia.

Greece has refused to recognise its neighbour under its constitutional name of Macedonia because that is also the name of the northern Greek province of Macedonia. Athens has threatened to block Skopje's bid to join the European Union and NATO until it changes its name, and efforts by the UN to resolve the 15-year dispute have so far proved fruitless.