NATO 'Harvest' slows amid tension

A bomb gutted an ethnic Albanian-owned gas station about eight miles west of Skopje

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- NATO has opened a new weapons collection site in Macedonia as Operation Essential Harvest enters its final phase.

NATO spokesman Major Barry Johnson told reporters on Thursday that troops were ready to take weapons from the militants as and when the rebels were willing to resume handing them over.

"The site is open but so far nothing has happened," a NATO spokesman in Skopje told CNN.

Officials suggested that the rebels might be holding back in anger over the Macedonian government's resistance to proceed with constitutional reforms.

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Under the phased, step-by-step peace plan for the region, the parliament is supposed to approve the constitutional reforms after the rebels have handed over the 3,300 weapons.

New security concerns have also arisen in recent days in the Macedonian villages of Zilce and Ratae, northeast of the city of Tetovo.

A tense standoff developed when villagers refused to allow certain police units to be replaced by the army.

Police spokesman Vasko Sutarov said all police units in Zilce and in nearby Ratae had been replaced by the army by Thursday morning.

The Macedonian government took the decision to replace units following an exchange of fire last Sunday between police and ethnic Albanians in the neighboring village of Semsevo.

NATO said its liaison teams determined the firefight -- which included the use of heavy weapons -- had been initiated by the police units in Zilce.

In another development, an explosion seriously damaged an ethnic Albanian-owned gas station near a police checkpoint outside Skopje early Thursday, police said.

No injuries were reported, and it was not immediately clear what caused the blast.

Operation Essential Harvest was officially launched on 22 August and effectively started on 27 August.

It is a 30-day mission which involves the sending of up to 3,500 NATO troops, with logistical support, to disarm ethnic Albanian groups and destroy their weapons.

It was the result of a peace plan under which the Macedonian government agreed to have parliament work toward approving constitutional amendments which would grant the country's ethnic Albanian minority greater rights.

In exchange, the rebels gave a commitment to hand over 3,300 weapons to NATO troops by September 26.

The alliance already has collected more than 2,200 weapons.

Parliament was expected to discuss the amendments before the last third was collected, but it did not convene Wednesday after failing to reach a quorum.

The discussion also has been delayed by another potentially disruptive issue: a proposal to put the constitutional amendments to a referendum.

Legislators were to resume debate Thursday on the proposal by the small New Democracy party.

A referendum could disrupt the peace efforts because sentiment is strong among majority Macedonians against giving ethnic Albanians greater rights.

Meanwhile, a Macedonian government request for a small NATO force to protect international monitors beyond September 26 was being discussed at alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, NATO spokesman Mark Laity said.

He told the Associated Press: "We are planning to be out when our mandate finishes."

The U.N. refugee agency urged the creation of a larger force capable of assisting in the return of tens of thousands of displaced people to tense areas.

Representative Eric Morris called for a "credible security presence that can ... address the legitimate security concerns of both communities."