Macedonia's top security body is tentatively endorsing the interior minister's plan to regain control over ethnic Albanian strongholds.
The endorsement comes despite warnings from Western officials that the move jeopardises the peace plan in the Balkan country.
Interior Minister Mr Ljube Boskovski announced police units would move today into several villages in the mostly ethnic Albanian-populated northwest "to restore law and order" following months of ethnic Albanian insurgency.
President Mr Boris Trajkovski convened the country's Security Council, which is made up of senior military and political leaders. In a statement they recommended "that security forces enter the crisis region in the next several days".
Under the August 13th peace plan, Macedonians agreed to give ethnic Albanians broader rights in exchange for an end to their uprising. The rebels have handed over almost 4,000 weapons to a NATO mission, but the Macedonian-dominated government has not carried out the promised reforms.
Western officials who brokered the deal have repeatedly warned that Macedonia's parliament must adopt the reforms and also grant amnesty to the rebels before government forces retake control over the volatile, ethnic Albanian-populated northwest.
But the Macedonian government has been under immense pressure to make it possible for thousands of Macedonian refugees to return home in the mostly ethnic Albanian-populated areas - even at the risk of provoking new violence.
"We don't have time for someone else to solve our situation," Mr Boskoski said. He said his police will enter only villages considered "low risk". But he conceded "not everything may develop as we plan".
AP