Macedonia forms unity government

VAKSINCE, Macedonia -- Macedonia has formed a national unity government with ethnic Albanians, seen as a crucial step to end fighting between troops and rebels.

Tuesday's coalition announcement followed marathon talks, supported by NATO secretary General George Robertson and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, between the main ruling and opposition parties.

The government would include the minority ethnic Albanians.

"A deal for a greater coalition has been made," government spokesman Antonio Milososki said.

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Under increasing international pressure, the government earlier backed down from its push to declare a state of war.

Such a move would have allowed it to sidestep democratic rules in its fight with the rebels, which began in February and subsided in late March, only to flare again a week ago after eight soldiers were killed in a rebel ambush.

Western officials believed declaring a state of war could have pushed more ethnic Albanians to support the rebels, who say they are fighting for greater rights and recognition for ethnic Albanians.

The coalition announcement was greeted with scepticism by one rebel leader called Commander Sokoli.

He told Kosovalive news agency in Kosovo that "any government formed ... without the participation of the NLA (National Liberation Army) will only let more blood get spilled," Associated Press reported.

The decision came as troops used helicopter gunships, artillery, mortar and machine guns on the rebels in a village just north of the capital Skopje.

There was no immediate word of casualties as smoke billowed from houses that suffered direct hits.

The new government would include the opposition Social Democrats and the opposition ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity.

Two of the ethnic Albanian parties were still arguing internally about how to provide their people with better access to higher education, Milososki said, but their differences were not seen as a threat to the agreement.

The fighting has prompted more ethnic Albanians to leave Macedonia.

The refugees said they were fleeing Gosince, one of several villages near Vaksince that have been under fire. They said their homes were demolished by shelling on Monday.

The United Nations refugee agency said 6,600 people had fled Macedonia into Kosovo as of Tuesday, most of them women, children and old men.

On Monday, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson implored Macedonia's disparate political parties to join a coalition.

He suggested that only compromise could snatch the country from "the brink of the abyss."

Robertson pledged that NATO would increase efforts to assist Macedonia's military forces, promising that alliance leaders would meet with top Macedonian generals to discuss co-ordinated efforts against the rebels.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warned of more serious conflict "with direct consequences for the entire Balkan region" unless the violence ended.

U.S. President George Bush backed Macedonian government efforts "to fight the extremists who have brought the violence to the region," according to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

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