Macedonia vows to continue truce

Soldiers ride in a lorry towards front-line positions in the village of Vaksince earlier this week

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Macedonian forces will continue to hold their fire in the confrontation with ethnic Albanian rebels, the government has said.

Skopje said civilians must be allowed leave the area near the border with Kosovo, which Macedonian troops have been shelling for two weeks to try to rout rebels who are dug in there.

A deadline for the rebels to withdraw or disarm expired at noon on Thursday (1000 GMT) with no sign of a threatened army offensive.

The government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia issued the ultimatum on Tuesday, warning the insurgents they faced an all-out assault if they failed to comply.

CNN's Chris Burns said there was no sign of the rebels pulling out of the villages, 16 miles (25 kilometres) north of Skopje, and the area was quiet, although gunfire was exchanged overnight.

AUDIO CNN's Chris Burns: Rebels have no intention of pulling back 509K/47 sec. AIFF or WAV sound    IN-DEPTH Macedonia: Hurdles to peace   •  Balkan hotspots   •  Interactive map   •  Macedonia's military   •  News search   •  Audio/video archive   •  In-Depth: Yugoslavia   •  In-Depth: Kosovo

However, government observers said on Thursday morning that up to 850 ethnic Albanian civilians were seen moving out of the rebel-held villages of Opaje and Nikustac following two weeks of clashes in the region bordering Kosovo.

Macedonian President Boris Trajkovksi said the current ceasefire was producing results, as ethnic Albanian civilians were leaving villages in the battle zone and more were preparing to move out.

The decision not to launch an offensive should not be taken as any sign of hesitancy, he warned.

"We have analysed the situation in the conflict zone near Kumanovo and we believe that the ceasefire is producing results," he said.

"A significant amount of villagers have left their homes in some areas and others are preparing to do the same."

He warned that the armed forces were ready to respond immediately to any provocation by the guerrilla forces, warning that the rebels sought to divide the population and provoke a civil war.

"It should be clear that we will not allow the terrorists to grab part of the territory of Macedonia. They should lay down their weapons because they will not win," Trajkovski added.

"They can be defeated in one or two days. But this is not just a military problem, so every measure taken should lead to a more long-lasting solution. The goal is to avoid unnecessary bloodshed."

A Macedonian police officer looks towards positions of ethnic Albanian rebels in the village of Matejce, near Kumanovo

Top European leaders had earlier urged Skopje to show restraint for fear that civilian casualties would drive ethnic Albanian parties out of the new coalition government.

The government blamed the rebels for sporadic new clashes and accuses them of holding civilians as human shields.

Burns said exchanges of fire near the village of Slupcane on Wednesday night and Thursday morning indicated the rebels had no intention of pulling back.

A European Union delegation, led by Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, visited Skopje on Wednesday. The three-member team, who also included EU Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten, met Trajkovski in an effort to diffuse the growing tensions.

Alarmed by the escalating fighting between government troops and ethnic Albanian militants, Macedonia's leaders on Sunday created a broad-based coalition government, uniting all major ethnic Albanian and Macedonian Slavic parties.

The new government faces the task of bridging deep differences sparked by distrust between the majority Slavs and the ethnic Albanian minority and demands by that minority to have the country's constitution changed to guarantee them greater rights.

Burns said there were divisions within the government over how much force troops should use against the rebels.

The Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity had argued for a softer response than that proposed by Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski in an effort to isolate them politically.