Rebels extend Macedonia cease-fire

Trajkovski has asked for help in disarming the rebels

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia have extended a ragged truce with government forces for 12 days.

The rebels said on Friday they were extending a unilateral ceasefire until June 27 "to create conditions for dialogue" to end the four-month conflict.

The self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA) and Macedonian forces have had fragile truces in place since Monday.

But the army accused the insurgents of firing mortars overnight near Opae, a village about 40 kms (25 miles) northeast of the capital, and said it responded with artillery fire.

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There were no reports of injuries. Sporadic explosions and shooting could be heard near rebel-held villages in the area on Friday.

The truce extension offer came as political leaders across the ethnic divide met to hammer out terms for preventing a new Balkan civil war.

European Union security chief Javier Solana predicted that NATO would agree to a peacekeeping role.

But he indicated the role would be limited to disarming rebels and collecting weapons if a peace deal were reached.

That role would be short of rebel demands for full NATO military intervention.

Solana has invited leaders of Macedonia's political parties to an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on June 25 -- setting a deadline for a deal.

The rebel ceasefire seemed timed to reflect that meeting.

Parties in Macedonia's fractious coalition government started a two-day summit in parliament in Skopje to work on details of a deal to end the insurgency.

The coalition was formed last month and includes two big Slav and two Albanian parties.

President Boris Trajkovski's plan offers rebels incentives to disarm and acceleration of constitutional reforms to improve the status of Albanians, who make up 30 percent of the population.

But it does not agree to their demands for amnesty.

Government sources said the party leaders were preparing separate proposals for constitutional reforms, including wider official use of the Albanian language and changes to a preamble mentioning Albanians as a minority and not one of two "founding peoples."

Trajkovski has said the army will show restraint during the meetings of politicians who are under mounting NATO and European Union pressure to reach a deal.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, visiting Skopje on Thursday, said NATO would consider a formal government request for help to oversee disarmament of the rebels if a peace deal was struck.

On the fringes of an EU summit in Gothenburg on Friday, Solana predicted NATO would accept. "I think the answer probably is yes, but only on the collection of weapons from the disarmament of rebels," he said.

Thousands of people have fled the region

Robertson also said he would "look with interest" at a rebel peace proposal on Thursday, which called for EU and U.S. mediation in negotiations.

The government has branded the NLA terrorists and refuses to talk.

Despite moves towards peace, the newspaper Dnevnik said Macedonia had formed a crack paratroop unit dubbed "Beasts" and would receive new four helicopter gunships and four small bombers in the coming days to bolster its airforce.