Ethnic Albanian guerrillas attacked police checkpoints in two villages near the north-west Macedonian town of Tetovo yesterday, at the same time as the army battled for control of villages near the city of Kumanovo, according to an Interior Ministry spokesman in Skopje, Mr Stevo Pendarovski.
"The terrorists started firing on our checkpoints at Sipkovice and Brodec," Mr Pendarovksi said, referring to ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the self-styled National Liberation Army.
A local journalist in Tetovo said the shooting could be heard in the town itself, where in March security forces battled for almost two weeks to dislodge guerrillas who took up positions in the mountains overlooking it. "The shots are coming from the direction of the villages of Vejce, Vesala, Brodec, Sipkovica and Selce", he said.
Selce was the temporary NLA headquarters for the Tetovo campaign in March before the army stormed it and drove the guerrillas out. Eight members of the security forces were killed by the rebels in Vejce a week ago.
The renewed attacks near the mainly ethnic Albanian town came as the army bombarded villages near Kumanovo which were seized on Thursday by the guerrillas, who shot dead two soldiers and declared the area liberated territory.
President Boris Trajkovski of Macedonia is to open consultations with political parties and military leaders on a possible declaration of a state of war, his office said in statement yesterday. The statement came after the EU foreign ministers warned Macedonia away from such a drastic move.
"The protection of a state's territorial integrity, of its sovereignty, of its citizens and its multi-ethnicity merit an examination of the possibility of introducing a state of war," Mr Trajkovski said.
"The President will start consultation with the leaders of the country's political parties as well as with the relevant institutions such as the government, defence and interior ministries and the chief of staff." the statement said.
The Prime Minister, Mr Ljubco Georgievski, said late on Saturday that parliament could declare a state of war when it meets tomorrow.
The army has been fighting ethnic Albanian guerrillas near the northern town of Kumanovo since Thursday, when the rebels - who in March attacked the north-western city of Kumanovo - killed two soldiers in the area.
The ambassador of the pan-European OSCE security body in Macedonia, Mr Carlo Ungaro, warned yesterday there was no quick fix for the intercommunity tensions threatening to rip the country apart.
"I do not think that there is a short-term and immediate answer to the problem," Mr Ungaro said. "But what is very important is that on the part of the international community there will never be any solidarity towards these armed groups that have come to disturb the stability of Macedonia."
He said that if no solution is found eventually, the consequences for the fragile multiethnic state will be "disastrous".
The armed campaign by ethnic Albanians has raised fears of a civil war in the only former Yugoslav republic to have left the old socialist federation peacefully.
"The question is not whether the solution can be found, the question is that the solution must be found, otherwise the results will be disastrous," he said.
The only possible way ahead was for the entire Macedonian political establishment, including ethnic Albanian parties, to present a united front in condemning the violence. "Up to now the Albanian political parties, with different nuances, have shown that they do not give solidarity or support to the armed groups," he said.