THE Dutch Prime Minister, Mr Wim Kok, said the EU would send the Dutch Foreign Minister to Albania tomorrow for emergency talks on a political solution.
Mr Kok's remarks came as the US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, said Washington was watching events in Albania very closely. But Mr Cohen said the US had no plans to evacuate Americans for the moment.
Mr Kok, speaking during a visit to Paris, said the Dutch Foreign Minister, Mr Hans Van Mierlo, had spoken to President Sali Berisha earlier yesterday and would fly to Tirana tomorrow.
"We are naturally strongly in favour of a political solution. We are in continuous contact with several capitals, notably Athens, because the Greek government is very much concerned by developments," Mr Kok said after talks with President Jacques Chirac.
"I can only hope that the Albanian president will find the possibility of a political solution to this problem," he said.
Albania's 11-party opposition Forum for Democracy appealed to the US and Europe yesterday to help Albanians find a political solution to avoid civil war. The forum also asked the EU to send a delegation to Tirana and said western financial aid should be linked to a political solution.
US warships are close by in the Adriatic and Ionian Sea, according to Gen George Joulwan, the commander of US forces in Europe, who said he had been in contact with the US ambassador in Tirana, Ms Marissa Lino.
Mr Cohen, speaking in Stuttgart, said: "To the extent that some action is called for in the future then obviously we would make preparations for that, but there are no such calls at this time," he said.
Greece is stepping up security along its border with Albania as Greek officials report refugees crossing the common border. "Four units of special anti-riot forces are expected in the region and a second helicopter is supposed to be dispatched on Thursday," a police source said.
Several dozen Albanians, mainly women and children, passed through the Kakavia border crossing into Greece yesterday. Greek port authorities on the island of Corfu reported a family of five had arrived by sea from Sarande, one of the southern Albanian towns no longer under government control.
Inside southern Albania, families of Greek origin were trying to make contact with kin in the Athens area, but the Greek consulate in Gjirokaster reported no big outflux of ethnic Greeks.
In the Adriatic Sea, an Italian-Albanian family of six, including three children, were picked up by an Italian helicopter after they set sail from the port city of Vlore, Italian port officials said in Bari.
Nearly 2,000 Italians live or work in Albania.
Italy would be ready to send troops to Albania to help maintain order once a new, broad-based government has been set up, the Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, was quoted as saying.