Heavy shelling and machine gun fire erupted around Macedonia's western town of Tetovo and near a village northwest of the capital Skopje this evening after a weekend of calm.
Eyewitnesses said two Mi-24 helicopter gunships flew towards the village of Radusa on Macedonia's western border with Kosovo and more than 10 loud explosions came from the area before the helicopters returned, flying over Skopje.
The village, occupied by ethnic Albanian guerrillas, has been a flashpoint in the four-month old conflict between the rebels and the Macedonian army for about two weeks.
Eyewitnesses in Tetovo said they heard artillery and automatic gunfire in the area around the hillside villages of Gajre and Sipkovica to the west of the mainly-Albanian town.
The renewed fighting began as newly-arrived US and European Union envoys began talks with Macedonian politicians to try to forge a peace agreement before the conflict slides into civil war.