European foreign ministers got a breakfast briefing from their so-called troika today on fighting in Macedonia as EU leaders kicked off a two-day summit in Stockholm being fast overshadowed by the specter of fresh Balkans blood-letting.
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Mr Gerhard Schroeder
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Hours before the heads of state and government began the summit, their foreign ministers heard from EU security and foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana, EU External Affairs Commissioner Mr Chris Patten and Swedish Foreign Minister Ms Anna Lindh.
The three, just back from a Balkans fact-finding tour, brought the ministers up to speed on mounting violence between ethnic Albanian rebels and Macedonian security forces, a crisis threatening to flash into full-blown civil war.
German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroeder, en route to the heavily guarded and sealed-off summit venue, told reporters he wanted "more reasonable treatment" for Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority.
But at the same time, he said, pressure needed to be stepped up on the "Albanian terrorists," referring to self-styled guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (NLA) in a cat-and-mouse skirmishes with the Macedonian army along the border with Kosovo.
Mr Schroeder also said he was against any partition of Macedonia, saying, "Macedonia's territorial integrity must not be tampered with.
"We want to assure the Skopje government of the support of Germany and the European Union in its conflict with the rebels," he said.
Russian President Mr Vladimir Putin was to join the EU heads of state and government and European Commission president Mr Romano Prodi for lunch today.
AFP