A political deal aimed at ending Macedonia's six-month ethnic conflict will be signed next week, officials said yesterday, despite a stunning rebel ambush earlier in the day that threatened negotiations.
Macedonian and ethnic Albanian sources said all four parties involved in the gruelling talks were initialling an agreement in preparation for it to be formally signed next Monday.
The positive development in the talks, which began on July 28th in a bid to stop an ethnic Albanian rebellion escalating into a civil war, came despite the deadliest assault yet by the guerrillas on government forces.
Ten soldiers - eight reservists and two officers - were killed early yesterday as they accompanied an army convoy en route for the northern flashpoint city of Tetovo where it was to relieve troops there, the Macedonian military said.
Two other reservists wounded in the action were rushed to hospital in Tetovo. Calm had been restored by late afternoon, sources said.
In Brussels, NATO condemned the attack, saying it threatened a political solution in Macedonia. NATO is poised to send in a 3,500-strong force to oversee the disarming of the rebels once a deal is signed.
In Ohrid, the southern town far from the fighting where the peace talks are being held, the hardline Macedonian party led by the Prime Minister, Mr Ljubco Georgievski, said it was temporarily pulling out of the talks.
Mr Georgi Trendafilov, the spokesman for Mr Georgievski's hardline VMRO-DPMNE party, said: "We are withdrawing for the moment."
He said the party had frozen its participation pending the outcome of a meeting in progress of the Macedonian National Security Council linking the country's top leaders.
"Our further decision will depend on the conclusions and on the proposed measures the National Security Council will take," Mr Trendafilov said.
But the EU envoy to Macedonia, Mr Francois Leotard, insisted that a formal signed agreement would be presented next week. "The political process will continue until Monday, August 13th, the date on which a peace document which we have prepared will be solemnly signed," he said.
The ethnic Albanian and Macedonian political parties said a deal was being initialled yesterday ahead of a signing next Monday. "The parties have today initialled the final text of the overall peace agreement that will be officially signed on Monday," said Ms Nikola Popovski, an official of the SDSM Macedonian party involved in the talks.
Although the ethnic Albanian rebels have not been permitted to participate in the talks, their co-operation is needed for the implementation of the accord.
NATO has said it is ready to send 3,500 troops into the former Yugoslav republic once a peace accord has been signed, and could enter the former Yugoslav republic within 48 hours. However, it has said it will only do so if the guerrillas were prepared to lay down their arms.
The path to a final accord was sown with doubt and bloodshed, sorely testing a July 5th ceasefire negotiated by NATO.
Hardliners in the Macedonian government started last week to talk tough, saying they were unwilling to sign a peace accord "under the threat of guns" and saying military action should be used to drive rebels out of their positions.