The Socialist-led government removed several key aspects in the so-called Status Law, including a reference to a "unified Hungarian nation" spanning borders.

Romania and Slovakia, both home to large Hungarian minorities, say the law discriminates against other ethnic groups and interferes with their sovereignty as it allows Budapest to give aid to about three million people on the basis of their being ethnic Hungarians.

Correspondents say Hungary made the changes to the law in an attempt to make it conform with European Union guidelines, after the law had been criticised by Brussels.

Hungary is set to join the EU next year - while several of its neighbours will remain outside.

Objections

The amendments to the law were supported by 195 members of parliament, while 173 deputies from opposition parties rejected the changes.

Hungarians abroad Croatia - 25,000 Romania - 1.7m Slovakia - 600,000 Slovenia - 10,000 Ukraine - 125,000 Ex-Yugoslavia - 340,000

"With Hungary close to joining the European Union, we cannot disregard the EU's legal system," Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs said before the vote.

Despite the changes, officials in Romania and Slovakia have expressed reservations about the law.

"We still have objections," Gheorghi Prisacaru, head of the Foreign Policy Committee in Romania's Senate was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

"The European Council, which is due to vote on this issue on Wednesday, should have the final say," Mr Prisacaru said.

Last week, the Slovakian Prime Minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, said the law was being approved against Slovakia's will and without consultations with Hungary's neighbours.

Under the Status Law - introduced in 2001 - ethnic Hungarians living in Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia are entitled to work in Hungary for a limited period, health treatment and educational aid.

Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory under the 1920 Trianon Treaty after World War I, and about three million ethnic Hungarians now live outside their historic homeland.