Skopje - The European Union's new Balkans envoy, Mr Francois Leotard, yesterday met the Macedonian President, Mr Boris Trajkovski, on the first step of his mission aimed at averting a new war in the Balkans.
Macedonian troops fired occasional machine-gun and mortar rounds at ethnic Albanian rebel positions just above the city of Tetovo, but no fresh skirmishes were reported in the north-east.
In Brussels, NATO said it had given final approval to a plan to send up to 3,000 troops to Macedonia to collect and destroy the weapons of ethnic Albanian rebels. The force would only go once a lasting ceasefire had been declared and a political agreement reached between Macedonian political parties - the task Mr Leotard is due to facilitate.
"The ball is now firmly in the court of the Macedonian government to deliver on the political dialogue and the ceasefire in order to allow NATO's help to come into effect," NATO's Secretary-General, Lord Robertson, commented in London.
