The Macedonian government and ethnic Albanian political leaders prepared to open a new round of talks Friday aimed at averting a new Balkans war, but quickly ran into problems over a plan to meet in the flashpoint town of Tetovo.
The permanent European Union and US envoys in the Balkan country, Francois Leotard and James Pardew, were meeting with Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski to make arrangements for the talks which they hoped would open "as soon as possible", said aides.
On Thursday, after agreeing to the talks, the Skopje government said they should be held in Tetovo, the country's second largest town.
It is located in the mainly ethnic Albanian north of the country and was the scene of heavy fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels earlier this week.
These clashes along with anti-Albanian, anti-western riots in the capital Skopje fueled fears of all-out war in the former Yugoslav state.
The international aides said, however, the government's decision to choose Tetovo, which is close to the border with the neighbouring Serbian province of Kosovo, as a venue posed technical problems.
It was therefore not clear at what time and where the talks would start.
On Thursday, as the international crisis mission flew in, ethnic Albanian rebels honoured an agreement with NATO to abandon positions they had taken since a July 5 truce, and dismantled checkpoints around Tetovo.
NATO spokesman in Skopje Barry Johnson told AFP on Friday that the guerrillas "are complying with the agreement."
"It looks the situation is getting on according to the plan," he said, as a new ceasefire entered its first day.
Macedonian Defence ministry spokesman Marjan Djurovski told AFP that "the town of Tetovo has been secured," as well as the main road in the area, leading to Jazince, just along the border with Kosovo.
Macedonian Slavs who have fled their homes in the trouble-hit area, returned to their villages on board two buses late Thursday.
Several previous rounds of peace talks talks have foundered, with the status of the Albanian language in Macedonia, which has a majority Slav population overall, being a key sticking point.
Western envoys said on Thursday after their latest talks with the Macedonian leaders that 95 percent of the agreement had already been secured.
The peace talks are aimed at ending an ethnic Albanian guerrilla insurgency which started in February, over their complaints of discrimination of the Albanian community which centre on the wording of the constitution.
The rebellion has fuelled western fears of a new Balkans war like those in Bosnia and the Serbian province of Kosovo in the 1990s.
Winning a political solution in this former Yugoslav republic would pave the way for NATO to send its 3,000 troops to collect rebel weapons under a partial amnesty proposal by Skopje in June.
But NATO officials insisted the deployment would be possible only if the fragile multi-ethnic government coalition in Skopje first cuts a political deal on terms of the disarmament.
Robertson said after Thursday's mission that "NATO is poised to take the guns from the insurgents."
"When a political agreement will have been reached, when there will be a sustainable ceasefire, the NATO troops will come," he said -- SKOPJE (AFP)
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