STV, the Slovak broadcaster, announced today during a press conference that the Slovakian final for Eurovision Song Contest 2009 will be on 8th March.

"We believe that the author and performance potential in Slovakia is sufficiently rich and wide, so we can chose a dignified and successful representative", said the program director of STV Roman Liptak.

The open call for song submissions was also announced and the deadline is 20th January.

The program director said that there may be semi finals until the final selection and that the cost of the whole project will be 3 million crowns (aprox. 100.000 Euros).

Slovakia returns to the Eurovision Song Contest after 11 years of absense.

Slovakia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest three times. Their first entry was in 1994 with the song