The NATO Secretary-General, Mr George Robertson, said today that alliance forces have boosted their presence along the Kosovo-Macedonia border to cut off the supply lines of ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
Extra troops and equipment and surveillance have already been put there, he said during a visit to Athens.
Mr Robertson said he had spoken earlier with KFOR's commander in Kosovo and was told that helicopters and electronic surveillance equipment would be used to stop any supply mission from crossing into Macedonia.
Macedonian troops have been battling ethnic Albanian guerrillas around the northwestern city of Tetovo, triggering fears of a new Balkan war.
Kosovo Albanian leader Mr Ibrahim Rugova today said that “all armed actions” should cease in Macedonia, but insisted the government in Skopje must move to address ethnic Albanians' demands to stop the situation from escalating.
“I fear that we will have a very serious conflict there,” Mr Rugova said. “In order to prevent the conflict and violence in Macedonia from escalating further, the Macedonian government should move,” he said. “It should listen to the Albanian demands so the radicals don't get the upper hand.”
“I call for all armed actions there be stopped and for dialogue to begin,” Mr Rugova said. But he stopped short of condemning explicitly actions by ethnic Albanian insurgents.
Macedonia's border skirmishes with ethnic Albanian insurgents continued today with state radio saying there was “a real war” in the country's second city.
Government commandos fired mortar and heavy machine-gun rounds at the rebels ensconced on mountain slopes overlooking Tetovo, and the guerrillas responded with automatic weapons.
The National Security Council - a panel of top government and defence officials - said the government would “take additional urgent and efficient measures for the Macedonian security forces to neutralise the terrorist groups.”
The rebels, whose insurgency started a month ago in a village on the border with Kosovo, appeared determined to expand their struggle from that sparsely inhabited border to Macedonia's principal cities.
Ethnic Albanians account for at least a quarter of Macedonia's two million people, dominating western regions of the country and a large section of the capital.
The unrest is linked both to Kosovo and a buffer zone adjoining it, where Yugoslav troops deployed on Wednesday.
AP