EU leaders back Macedonia force

Germany's Fischer wants a NATO-led force

GENVAL, Belgium -- European Union foreign ministers have vowed to stand by Macedonia after NATO's Operation Essential Harvest ends and voiced support for a longer-term international force.

Macedonia topped the agenda at an unofficial gathering of ministers south of Brussels this weekend.

The EU leaders, concerned lest a security vacuum will develop in Macedonia after NATO's 4,500-member brigade pulls out later this month, began deliberations on sending its own force to protect civilian observers.

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told reporters: "One way or another, Europe must stand by Macedonia. We must not suddenly change our stance."

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called for a NATO-led force with a United Nations mandate to take over then.

IN-DEPTH Macedonia: Hurdles to peace   •  Balkan hotspots   •  Interactive map   •  Macedonia's military   •  News search   •  Audio/video archive   •  In-Depth: Yugoslavia   •  In-Depth: Kosovo

"We'd be strongly in favour of a mandate given by the U.N. Security Council and executed by NATO plus some others," he said in an interview with the New York Times, published just before the 15 ministers began a two-day informal brainstorming session.

"We need a lot of civilian monitors but they must be protected," Fischer said. He called for a "robust but limited" force to back up civilian monitors.

"We will discuss the possiblities in order to avoid a security vacuum...after NATO forces have completed their mission," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, just back from a two-day trip to Macedonia.

"Europe will stay engaged in all fields, economically, politically and in the security field," Solana told Reuters, stressing he did not expect decisions this weekend.

NATO is in the middle of its mission to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels who had been fighting for greater rights for their minority. Weapons collection is part of the overall political agreement that EU, American and NATO mediators pressured the two sides into signing last month.

The 19-nation alliance insists, however, that the 30-day mission ends September 26 and that it will not extend it or undertake a new one. Many fear that without an international military presence fighting will break out again between rebels and the Macedonian army.

Francis Leotard of France, the EU's envoy to Macedonia and part of the mediation team that helped work out the political agreement, has suggested the EU deploy a 1,500-man force to Macedonia to provide security for civilian observers from the EU and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Trajkovski sees no need for NATO troops to stay on

But diplomats told Reuters there was no o support for EU Macedonia envoy Francois Leotard's proposal that the Union should take command of a 1,500-strong force to follow on from the NATO mission. Leotard was not invited to the Genval meeting.

The diplomats quoted by Reuters said the EU's bloc's embryonic defence force was not yet operational and it was vital to keep the United States involved.

"We will probably have our troops in Macedonia for two or three more months," said Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique. "It is important for Europe to stabilise the whole region."

The major discussion of the Macedonia issue was delayed until Sunday, however, to allow host Foreign Minister Louis Michel time to return from the anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa.

But Macedonia expressed no interest in any more foreign troops.

"We don't need NATO to stay on as guarantor for peace," Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski told the Associated Press on Saturday. "Macedonian security troops will be the only true guarantee for peace and loyal ethnic Albanians must understand this.

"If NATO troops stayed on, this would only give us a sense of false security ... and create another Bosnia or Kosovo in the Balkans."

An EU military deployment would be a significant first. The 15-nation bloc is developing its own military arm and plans to be able to field a 60,000-man rapid reaction corps by 2003. EU defence officials have said they hope to have a small force ready for action by the end of this year.

The idea of the force is to enable the EU to take joint military action when NATO as a whole does not want to get involved. Though operating under European leadership, the force would be able to use NATO planning and intelligence assets.

An influential non-government organisation meanwhile called for a NATO follow-on force with a robust mandate capable of protecting international monitors, escorting refugees back to their homes if necessary across militia roadblocks, and sealing Macedonia's borders with Kosovo, Albania and southern Serbia.

The International Crisis Group said in a report issued on Saturday: "The war is for the moment on hold but Macedonia is very far from being at peace."

IGC president Gareth Evans, a former Australian foreign minister, said NATO nations had given the current force a "Mickey Mouse mandate" that prevented troops from doing the job.