Macedonian government in turmoil

Government forces shelled the rebel-stronghold Vakcince

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Macedonia's multi-ethnic emergency coalition government is in turmoil after revelations of negotiations with armed ethnic Albanian rebels.

The political storm broke as the Macedonian army made major advances against ethnic Albanian rebels in the north of the country, including taking their village stronghold of Vakcince.

The national unity government was formed less than two weeks ago, drawing ethnic Albanian parties together with those of the majority Slavs, and had vowed to exclude the National Liberation Army from the political process.

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But on Thursday, diplomats and politicians confirmed a deal had been agreed earlier in the week by senior officials of ethnic Albanian parties in government and NLA commanders.

The agreement would offer rebels an amnesty if they stop fighting and a veto over political decisions about ethnic Albanian rights.

The government has opposed negotiations with the rebels -- who it claims are trying to split the state -- and leaders of Slavic parties in the coalition expressed outrage at what they called secret negotiations.

But, defying domestic as well as international condemnation, the leaders of Macedonia's two main ethnic Albanian parties rejected demands to renounce the pact.

The leader of the ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity, Imer Imeri, suggested that the talks had at least tacit government approval, according to the Associated Press.

"The government was encouraging us to approach the NLA and we did it for peace," he was quoted as saying. "Peace is very near."

The head of the Democratic Party of Albanians, Arben Xhaferi, said his group had "never acted behind the government's back" and was not seeking to leave the coalition.

But Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski warned that he and the Slav parties could not continue to work with them unless they tore up the agreement.

And Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski accused the parties of openly merging with the rebels. "Albanians are siding against (Slavic) Macedonians," he told Associated Press.

The furore has forced a senior envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Robert Frowick, to leave the country with diplomats and government officials saying he had helped mediate the deal.

"It's good that he has gone," Reuters quoted Georgievski as saying.

On Thursday, the Macedonian army launched a major offensive against the rebels in the area bordering the Serbian province of Kosovo and escorted over 100 ethnic Albanian villagers from Vakcince.

Ethnic Albanian refugees are fleeing the conflict

"They were moved out of a ditch by the police. They were making their way across fields and maybe there was some fire. I'm not sure. I could see them ducking down," a Reuters cameraman said.

One elderly man said there were a lot of wounded people in the village. He said "almost the whole village" were still in their homes.

The government has said that the thousands of villagers remaining in the area were being held as human shields.

Armed conflict broke out in February with the rebels saying they want more rights for ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, where they make up as much as a third of the two million population.

The government accuses them of trying to grab land and unify it with Kosovo, which is also dominated by ethnic Albanians.

Excluding the rebels from the political process has the backing of the United States and the European Union.

A U.S. embassy statement condemned the deal as a "totally unacceptable ... effort to bring this insurgent group into the state structures."

"There should be no accommodations made for violence or violent groups."

The 15-nation EU bloc said the rebels had "no place at the negotiating table."