Leaders of Macedonia's Albanian minority rejected a Western-backed plan to revive deadlocked peace talks as inadequate yesterday, promising to press for a better deal when negotiations resume today.
Their stance clouded optimism expressed by US and European Union envoys that a proposal on political reforms they presented on Saturday would form the basis of efforts to end a 20-weekold Albanian guerrilla rebellion by improving minority rights.
Meanwhile automatic weapons fire broke out late last night near Tetovo in north western Macedonia, police said, further endangering an already shaky threeday-old ceasefire. On Saturday night rebels attacked Macedonian army positions on the Kosovo border.
Last night's shots were fired near the predominantly-Macedonian village of Lesok.
"I didn't start the war, I want to stop the war," Mr Arben Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), said in an interview. "This offering cannot stop the war."
Shrugging off the view of diplomats that the plan is the only option on offer, the leader of Macedonia's other main Albanian party, Mr Imer Imeri, also took a tough line.
"For the most part we will disagree with this when we start talking tomorrow," Mr Imeri, president of the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP), said. "There is no substantial difference from what was on the table before."
NATO negotiated an unlimited ceasefire, accepted by both Skopje and NLA rebels that took hold at midnight on Thursday. Apart from several clashes just after the ceasefire was put into place, no serious incidents had been reported until yesterday.