Hundreds more British troops were tonight preparing to leave for Macedonia after Nato chiefs ordered them to begin collecting weapons from Albanian rebels.
Up to 700 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment will begin flying out to join an advanced party of 400 tomorrow.
They will lead a 3,500-strong international force gathering arms surrendered by the rebel Albanian National Liberation Army under a peace deal brokered last week.
The troops are set to begin leaving in the early hours tomorrow and the full international force is expected to be deployed within days.
NATO governments today approved the plan to the troops to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia, launching the alliance's third Balkans mission in a decade.
At noon, the North Atlantic Council agreed to authorise the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, Gen Joseph Ralston to give the order for Operation 'Essential Harvest', a NATO statement said.
The 19 countries of NATO had until noon to register any objections to Operation Essential Harvest, which envisages the deployment of 3,500 NATO troops across the tiny ex-Yugoslav republic to collect the guerrillas' weapons.
None did, so the operation will go ahead.
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