Macedonian forces and ethnic Albanian rebels clashed in a northwestern town yesterday after a policeman died in overnight fighting, dimming hopes that a newly-agreed peace plan could end six months of bloodshed.
The chief of staff of the Macedonian army resigned to take responsibility after 10 soldiers died in a rebel ambush yesterday, the highest toll in the conflict so far.
The government declared a day of mourning yesterday and newspapers were pessimistic about a new Western-brokered peace plan meant to avert a new Balkan war.
Heavy detonations and rifle fire could be heard in western Tetovo, Macedonia's second city.
"Macedonian forces are concentrating their fire around Teqe," the chief of Tetovo police, Mr Shaip Bilalli, said, referring to an area of the town.
Adding to a toll of several dozen army and police killed in the conflict, a policeman, Mr Dusko Sinadinovski, died in an attack by rebels in the northwestern village of Ratae, the MIA news agency said. Another policeman was wounded in the chest.
A local councillor from the central town of Veles said a 14-year-old ethnic Albanian boy, Tafil Vejseli, was killed by suspected Macedonian paramilitaries overnight. There was no independent confirmation.
Amid the violence, the Defence Minister, Mr Vlado Buckovski, a moderate said by Macedonian media to be under pressure to resign after the killings of the 10 soldiers on Wednesday, urged a new chance for peace.
"This is a moment at which we decide the destiny of our country. Although we are full of sorrow and pain, we mustn't take leave of our senses and make decisions under the influence of strong emotions," he said.
The army chief of staff, Gen Pande Petrovski, handed in his resignation to President Boris Trajkovski after the killings of the 10 soldiers, officials said. He would be replaced by Gen Metode Stamboliski until a successor was found.
In the capital, shopkeepers swept up glass from windows smashed during a rampage by about 1,000 people angered by the killings of the soldiers and by fighting in Tetovo.
Western envoys, who had struggled to mediate a peace deal for 12 days, persuaded Macedonian and ethnic Albanian party leaders to initial the peace accord on Wednesday despite the upsurge in violence.
"We can ... hope that they will not go back" on the agreement, Mr Buckovski told the French daily Le Monde.
He reiterated hopes that the peace deal might still be signed on Monday in Skopje. He also expressed hopes for a planned deployment of 3,500 NATO troops to help collect arms meant to be surrendered by guerrillas once an amnesty is in place.
The chief of staff of the guerrilla National Liberation Army, General Gezim Ostreni, was quoted as welcoming the peace deal.
"The agreement meets the goals that everyone was committed to, the US, EU, all the people as well as the NLA," he told a Kosovo daily.