A NATO operation to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia will begin this morning if none of the 19 allies object, a NATO spokesman announced late yesterday.
He said the 19 NATO ambassadors - the North Atlantic Council, or NAC - agreed on the so-called "silence procedure" after hearing a report from the supreme allied commander for Europe, Gen Joseph Ralston of the US, that the conditions for Operation Essential Harvest had been met.
The silence procedure is standard in major NATO decisions, giving the member capitals time to study the decision, then assent to it by their silence.
Gen Ralston, who spent several hours in Macedonia on Monday, told the ambassadors the fragile week-old ceasefire between government and rebel forces was holding as well as could be expected, a NATO source said.
But even as NAC took the decision, a cloud hung over Macedonia as Skopje officials accused ethnic Albanian rebels of carrying out a "serious provocation" which could endanger the entire peace process in destroying a 14th century Orthodox church earlier in the day.
Defence ministry spokesman Mr Marjan Gjurovski said the rebels had "mined" the church inside a 14th century Orthodox monastery in the northwest village of Lesok, which lies in rebel-controlled territory.
"It was a serious provocation, an attempt to introduce religious hatred into the war," a defence ministry source said.
The majority of Macedonians are Orthodox, while the ethnic Albanians, who make up around a third of the population, are Muslims.
NATO Secretary General Lord Roberton called the destruction of the church "deplorable" and "totally unacceptable", but cautioned against vengeance.
"I strongly urge the population to resist any calls for retaliation," he said in a statement. "We are at a crucial moment, with the destiny of ... Macedonia being played out and a peaceful solution in prospect," he said.
"The long-term stability of the country depends on tolerance and I appeal for restraint ... " Tuesday's decision means that, unless any of the 19 allies vetoes the operation by the deadline, the remainder of the 3,500-strong force will begin deploying in Macedonia today.
They will be joining a 400-strong British advance party that is already setting up headquarters in the capital, Skopje, and collection points around the country.
The NATO source said that, despite yesterday's decision, some of the most powerful of the 19 allies - namely Britain, Germany and France - were "chilly" to the full deployment idea, unconvinced that the fragile ceasefire would hold.
"Surprisingly, for all of its pomp and circumstance, the UK has been very cautious in their approach. One of their insistences is to have all of Ralston's reports in writing, and to have 24 hours for London to look at them." Under an agreement signed in Skopje last week, Essential Harvest is to collect weapons voluntarily surrendered by the ethnic Albanian rebels who have been combating government forces.
But NATO had set certain conditions before sending in the full complement, the most critical of which is a durable ceasefire between government troops and rebels.