A United States peace envoy with a reputation as a Balkan firebrand arrived in Macedonia last night as fighting flared across the region and the government went onto a semi-war footing. Mr James Pardew arrives with a reputation for hard talking after overseeing the US-funded programme to rearm Bosnia's Croat and Muslim forces.
Two months ago he visited Kosovo to try and persuade mainstream ethnic Albanian parties to distance themselves from rebels fighting over the border in Macedonia.
These rugged skills will be needed as Macedonia slides ever further into war.
Rebel units stormed four villages around the western town of Tetovo over the weekend, while other units attacked to the east, near the town of Kumanovo.
The Kumanovo offensive is the most serious, thwarting Red Cross efforts to deliver supplies to two villages, Grusino and Lipkovo, where an estimated 15,000 people have been cut off since June 12th.
Macedonia's government last night reacted by calling up fresh reservists and instituting a "war tax" which takes effect this week, adding a one per cent surcharge to the prices of goods.
The tax is designed to fill the gaping hole in the budget caused by the war. While government officials say they are waiting to hear peace plans from Mr Pardew, due to work with EU special envoy, Mr Francois Leotard, they are also preparing to escalate the conflict.
The Defence Minister, Mr Vlado Buckovski, is in the Ukraine, hoping to add to the helicopter gunships that country has already sold him.
Mr Pardew arrives knowing NATO is ready to deploy a 3,000-strong force to police any ceasefire he can hammer out between the two sides. But the main stumbling block remains the refusal of the Macedonian government to even talk to the rebels, which it says it does not recognise.
Mr Pardew, a protege of the former US secretary of state, Ms Madeleine Albright, crossed swords with British and French diplomats during his Bosnia duty by lavishing extra guns and tanks on the Croat-Muslim forces. European diplomats said the result has been to create a force powerful enough to start a war of revenge against the Bosnian Serbs.