Talks in Macedonia amid clashes

Army troops pound Matejce

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has arrived in Macedonia in an attempt to prevent heavy fighting break up a fragile unity government.

The national unity government of ethnic Albanian and Slav parties has already come under pressure after it was revealed that ethnic Albanian politicians had secretly signed a deal with rebels fighting in the north of the country.

Government security forces have increased the ethnic tension by bombarding rebel-held villages with helicopter gunships and heavy artillery.

Military spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski told the Associated Press on Monday that the army had taken a third village, Matejce, during the past few days.

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"We kicked them out of the village. They scattered up in the hills," he said.

This would follow the retaking of two other villages on the weekend, Lojane and Vakcince.

But AP added that heavy shelling continued overnight indicating that resistance by rebels was still going on.

Tanks and long-range artillery also bombarded the villages of Orizare and Slupcane, a few miles east of Matejce.

CNN's Chris Burns said: "The unity government is holding at the moment but we have to see if the situation on the ground will force ethnic Albanians to leave.

He added: "It looks like it could hold, that is why Solana is here."

Solana is to hold top-level political talks with president Boris Trajkovski, prime minister Ljubco Georgievski and other party leaders on Monday as part of an international effort to bring a halt to the fighting.

"I came to talk to the government and leaders of different political formations to see how we can resume the political dialogue, which I think is important," Reuters reported him as saying.

Villagers have been fleeing the conflict

Slavs were unhappy because the deal reportedly said that the rebels would agree to stop fighting in exchange for amnesty guarantees and the power to veto political decisions on ethnic Albanian rights, the Associated Press news agency said.

The national unity coalition was formed just two weeks ago under heavy pressure from Solana and other top international figures.

Food running out

Concern is also growing at the welfare of the thousands of civilians thought to be trapped in villages.

Burns said there were fears of a humanitarian crisis if fighting continues, with food and other supplies running low for the civilians and aid agencies unable to reach the villagers.

The defence ministry said talks were continuing on how to evacuate the villagers from the conflict zone.

Ministry spokesman Georgi Trendafilov said: "The military operation will depend on the decision about the evacuation of civilians."

Reuters said most of the civilians are believed to be in the village of Lipkovo.

It quoted the town's mayor, Reshat Ferati, as saying: "There are about 10,000 in Lipkovo and most of them stay in cellars or houses without roofs."

Lipkovo's mayor Hysamedin Halili had told him on Sunday that their food reserves were running out and that they were now eating maize -- which they normally fed to the animals.

It was not immediately clear how many people are still trapped in the rebel-held villages.

Up to 3,000 have crossed into Serbia, Yugoslavia's larger republic in the past weeks, while an army spokesman said that more then 1,300 left the area during the weekend.

Thousands more have crossed into Kosovo since the crisis began earlier this month.

The rebels say they are fighting for greater rights for Macedonia's minority ethnic Albanians.

The government contends they are intent on seizing territory and carving out an ethnic Albanian state.

The U.S. ambassador in Macedonia, Mike Einik, met with ethnic Albanian politicians on Sunday to discuss ways out of the crisis.

After talks with Einik, one of the ethnic Albanian leaders, Imer Imeri, spoke of a new U.S.-European initiative to end the crisis.

"The important thing is that the killing stops and that the civilians are saved," Imeri told AP.

He added that the agreement he signed with the militants "had some positive connotations."