No government representatives attended the funeral, but Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda promised to take personal responsibility for progress in the hunt for her killers.

The government will take harsh steps against all expressions of racial and ethnic hatred

Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda

Ordering the interior minister to provide him with detailed reports of the investigation, Mr Dzurinda said the case should be solved as soon as possible.

"The premier stresses that the Slovak Government will take harsh steps against all expressions of racial and ethnic hatred," a statement said.

Police keep open mind

Mrs Balazova died on Tuesday, two days after her family were attacked in their home in Zilina, central Slovakia, by three men wielding baseball bats.

But according to the Czech news agency CTK, police in the region - "considered a bastion of Slovak nationalism" - said they were keeping an open mind on the motivation behind the attack.

"Criminal proceedings have started, but the perpetrators have not yet been ascertained. A racial motive cannot entirely be ruled out," a police spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

A racial motive cannot entirely be ruled out

Police spokeswoman

The deputy chairwoman of the opposition Slovak National Party, Eva Slavkovska, said she was sure what had happened.

"I do think that the this crime was racially motivated," she said, in remarks broadcast by Slovak radio.

"Such crimes should not be tolerated in Slovakia."

But Slavkovska also said her nationalist party had opposed a minute's silence held in parliament, CTK added.

"I know... also about opposite examples when Romanies beat to death a white person, and deputies did not pay tribute to him with a minute's silence."

Tributes

Meanwhile, some of the 400 mourners at Mrs Balazova's funeral paid tribute to her.

"I was a kindergarten teacher and their children were always clean," one of her neighbours said.

The family enjoyed a reputation as "very decent Romanies with whom there have never been any problems", said another.

Fresh attack

And as the case was making headlines across the country, six men aged between 21 and 24 were arrested in western Slovakia on suspicion of involvement in another attack on a Roma family.

Attackers armed with iron bars broke into the family's home in Lakarska Nova Ves.

A 47-year-old woman suffered head injuries. Her 22-year-old son was left with a broken jaw, SITA said.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.