But a strong state, he added, means "a law-based, workable federative state."

The struggle ended with victory and formation of the Macedonian federative state inside Yugoslavia Federation (SFRY).

After an abortive attempt to unite with Armenia and Azerbaijan in a federative state, Georgian leaders proclaimed the country's independence as the Democratic Republic of Georgia on 26 May 1918.

This constitution was to a large degree modified in 1968, establishing Czech and Slovak Socialist Republics within the Czechoslovakia as a federative socialist state.

Warning to Regions Mr. Yeltsin acknowledged that the constitutional process would take time, saying, "Building a federative state cannot be a one-time act."

In 1952 the GDR disestablished its federative states and replaced them by smaller new East German administrative districts.

In the 1970s and 1980s the government structure was based on the amended 1960 Constitution of Czechoslovakia, which identified the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic as a federative state of two equal fraternal nations.

This corresponds to the spirit of the then West German constitution, the Grundgesetz, allowing all Länder (German federative states), then under allied control, to give in their adhesion to the new republic.

After the hardly established federative states of the German Democratic Republic had given in their adhesion to the Federal Republic, "Germany" ("Deutschland") is always used as the official short name.

Mr. Gerasimov today read a formal reply saying: "Federal jurisdiction has priority over the jurisdiction of a territory which is part of the federation, just as in any other federative state.