Macedonia's Slav and ethnic Albanian leaders emerged today from the first round of a long weekend of crucial talks designed to end a four-month Albanian insurrection.
But sporadic fighting continued despite a rebel ceasefire announcement with police reporting they shot dead a rebel trying to smuggling arms.
President Mr Boris Trajkovski and the leaders of the four parties in the government of national unity - two Slav, two Albanian - met in Skopje's parliament for the highly sensitive talks in a bid to finally break the political and military deadlock which has threatened to spark all-out war in the small former Yugoslav republic.
Little news about the first round of the talks emerged, with only Defence Minister Mr Vlado Buckovski expressing his moderate optimism that the talks would lead to a resolution of the conflict.
Ethnic Albanian political leaders and rebels want to change the constitution to elevate their status to that of a nation equal to the Macedonian Slav majority instead of being just another ethnic minority. But the Macedonian Slav parties have so far refused to amend the constitution.
The ceasefire was broken yesterday by mortar in the rebel-held hills between Skopje and the northern city of Kumanovo.
Police said today they had shot dead a rebel trying to smuggle arms into the suburb of Aracinovo after he tried to run a police checkpoint.
They added they had also found the body of an ethnic Albanian civilian in a house on the outskirts of Tetovo in the northwest, the scene of clashes in recent nights.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said more than 28,000 people had fled Macedonia in the last week, 25,000 of them - including a 103-year-old woman in a wheelchair - ethnic Albanians heading for Kosovo.
AFP