NATO chief checks Macedonia truce

Gen. Ralston, right, arrives in Skopje

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- NATO's supreme commander for Europe is in Macedonia to find out first hand if it is safe to deploy a full force of 3,500 troops.

U.S. General Joseph Ralston is meeting local NATO commanders and Macedonian government officials to complete a security assessment.

He was returning to Brussels later on Monday to brief NATO's 19 state ambassadors.

If the council decides Macedonia's cease-fire is holding, a further 3,000 troops will be sent on Operation Essential Harvest, a 30-day mission to collect arms from ethnic Albanian rebels.

MORE STORIES Q&A: NATO troops in Macedonia   Rebels' tank surprise for NATO   How arms will be 'harvested'   Time.com: Macedonia peace plan will test rebels' intentions     EXTRA INFORMATION Macedonia: Hurdles to peace     RESOURCES Message Board: The Balkans: Macedonia     AUDIO CNN's Walter Rodgers: Rebels say they will comply with the agreement 6.74 MB / 145 sec WAV sound    QUICKVOTE What role should NATO troops play in Macedonia? They should engage in the fighting on the government side They should merely collect weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels They should not be there at all View Results

Soldiers from Britain, Canada, Greece and the Czech Republic flew in on Sunday to complete the 400-member advance force.

Ralston said: "I'm here on a fact-finding mission...I am gathering facts and I will go back and put them in my report and make that report to the North Atlantic Council (NAC).

"Then it will be up to the nations of NATO what to do from here."

Meanwhile, Macedonia's government announced its troops will pull back from front-line areas where NATO forces will go to collect arms from rebels of the National Liberation Army (UCK).

Macedonia's military and police commanders have expressed concern over how the weapons collection will work.

Security forces would be expected to pull back from areas around the collection points to create a "friendly environment for the rebels' disarmament," a Macedonian defence source told the Associated Press.

The Macedonians fear the rebels might "use the opportunity to sweep in and take control over the area cleared by the military and police," the source said. Earlier overnight clashes described as "intensive" threatened to disrupt NATO's mission. The truce was punctured by a new battle near Macedonia's second-largest town of Tetovo late on Sunday.

Witnesses said the clashes, intense for about an hour and later sporadic before abating early on Monday, were the worst since the ceasefire was reinstated shortly before last week's peace accord.

Each side accused the other of starting the "intense" gun battle late on Sunday. Macedonian warplanes flew over the Tetovo area on Monday morning but witnesses told Reuters it remained calm on the ground.

The reclusive leader of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian guerrillas appeared in public on Sunday, inviting reporters to his mountain hideout to declare that his fighters would hand their weapons to NATO soldiers and honour last week's peace accord.

Although he is wanted for war crimes, Ahmeti is now portraying himself as a man of peace, CNN's Walter Rodgers said.

"We will give up all our arms, because we will no longer have any need for them," Ahmeti said of the rebels, who began fighting for more rights for minority ethnic Albanians in Macedonia six months ago.

Ahmeti promised that after the peace deal, the rebels would integrate with the wider community. The insurgents, he said, want to assimilate again into society and live normal lives together with Macedonians.

"We have to think about the future and we have to remember the past as something bitter," Ahmeti said. "We have to create the conditions to accommodate both Albanians and Macedonians."

But Macedonian nationalists are sceptical. On Sunday, protesters blockaded the main road to the border in the town of Stenkovac for a second day, preventing NATO-led peacekeepers from travelling back and forth to Kosovo. The support base for peacekeepers in Kosovo is located in Macedonia.

Observers say many Macedonians blame NATO for their troubles because they say the alliance failed to stop weapons and supplies from Kosovo that are widely believed to be supporting rebel forces.