The political crisis into which Macedonia has plunged over the past years is affecting neighboring states as well, the country's opposition leader has said while on a Friday visit to Sofia.

Zaev met PM Boyko Borisov in the morning at the Council of Ministers, telling journalists afterwards that he would like to extend his gratitude to Sofia authorities for putting in effort to help find a way out of the political turmoil.

Bulgaria, "a big friend of Macedonia", has to be informed of opportunities to find a peaceful solution, Focus News Agency quotes Zaev as saying.

"Macedonia has got our support for joining the EU and NATO. We insist very much that the political crisis be resolved in a democratic way," PM Borisov has told private national bTV station.

"We are categorically against statements on Macedonia's federalization," he added, referring to suggestions by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Bulgaria and Albania might be seeking to partition the country.

Borisov called on the governing parties and the opposition to find a common language which Europe has also demanded.

The meeting at the government headquarters also included Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov and Yanaki Stoilov, a member of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) - the counterpart to Zaev's SDSM.

"We organized the meeting with the opposition to show that in Bulgaria we are not divided into left-wing or right-wing when it comes to such problems," Borisov added.