The NATO supreme commander in Europe, Gen Joseph Ralston of the US, flew into Macedonia yesterday, where the government offered to redeploy its forces away from conflict areas to allow NATO troops to collect rebel weapons.
During a visit lasting a few hours, NATO's supreme commander met the alliance officers charged with carrying out the sensitive disarmament mission which is seen as essential to ending a seven-month rebel insurgency and the threat of civil war in the former Yugoslav republic.
Gen Ralston also met President Boris Trajkovsi of Macedonia and other ministers from the Skopje government.
"I am gathering facts...then it will be up to the nations of NATO to decide what to do from here," Gen Ralston told reporters.
He was referring to today's crucial meeting of NATO ambassadors, which must decide whether to give the go-ahead to a fully fledged NATO force to collect the weapons.
Following the signature last week of a peace accord between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political parties, NATO sent a vanguard force of 520 troops to prepare the ground for full NATO deployment in "Operation Essential Harvest". NATO says a durable ceasefire must be in place before the full 3,500-strong British-led force can be deployed.
Gen Ralston's trip went ahead despite weekend clashes in the troubled northwestern region around the flashpoint town of Tetovo, although the area was reported calm yesterday.
The Macedonian government said yesterday it would withdraw its forces from key positions to help the ceasefire. "Macedonian security forces are ready as of today to change their position...in order to create the necessary conditions to launch Operation Essential Harvest to disarm the Albanian terrorists," the defence ministry said in a statement.
As a confidence-building measure, helicopters and planes will be barred from flying over the frontline areas, it added. But the defence ministry warned that troops, fighter aircraft and attack helicopters will be dispatched to respond to an attack or a ceasefire violation.
The redeployment offer from Skopje followed a renewed pledge from the rebels on Sunday to hand over their weapons to the NATO task force. Mr Ali Ahmeti, political leader of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA), said "as far as the NLA is concerned, there will be no problem. All of the NLA's combatants will hand over their arms."
The NLA has been fighting government forces to press for expanded rights for Macedonia's large ethnic Albanian minority, which lives mostly in the northwest of the Balkans country.
While NATO officials have remained tight-lipped about the advance party's activities, they did confirm that the British commander of the task force, Brig Gen Barney White-Spunner, had met Mr Ahmeti on Friday. British liaison troops began their reconnaissance missions, touring Nikustak, a rebel-held village in the northern Kumanovo region where fighters there said they were prepared to co-operate, according to journalists who accompanied the troops.
In Brussels, meanwhile, an official said NATO ambassadors are not expected to launch the full deployment of Operation Essential Harvest at their meeting later today.
NATO officials have declined to say how many weapons will be taken out of Macedonia but western sources estimate that number to be at 2,500. Macedonian sources say, however, that at least 6,000 light arms are in the hands of the rebels and many more heavy weapons.
In a sign of hostility on the part of some members of Macedonia's population, however, a demonstration took place outside the parliament building, where Gen Ralston was meeting Macedonian leaders. "We do not want the NATO harvest," one banner said.
Reuters reports from Tirana:
The Albanian Prime Minister, Mr Ilir Meta (32), won confirmation as head of government for a new four-year term in a vote by the ruling Socialist party yesterday, party officials said.
Mr Meta has won international praise for a series of successful privatisations, improvements to the country's dilapidated road network and his firm opposition to ethnic Albanian violence in neighbouring Macedonia.
AFP adds:
The remains of more than 200 Muslims believed to have been killed by Serb forces after the fall of Srebrenica have been exhumed in eastern Bosnia, Bosnian national television reported yesterday.
During the past 20 days since the exhumation work started, the remains of some 205 civilians have been found in a mass grave near Ravnice, in the vicinity of Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, the station reported.