A ceasefire between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and state security forces was holding yesterday in Serbia's volatile Presevo Valley region, which borders Kosovo and Macedonia.
The area has remained quiet since the ceasefire came into force one minute after midnight, but officials on all sides said it remained a challenge to bring lasting peace to the area after more than a year of sporadic violence.
"If yesterday was a historic day, this is also a historic day because the night was completely quiet. There were no provocations or armed attacks by the Albanian guerrillas," a spokesman said in Bujanovac.
More than 30 people have been killed in or near the part of the buffer zone between Kosovo and Serbia proper which runs through the Presevo Valley. The clashes have alarmed Western governments as they have the potential to ignite a larger conflict in the region.
Mr Nebojsa Covic, the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, said the truce was just a first step.
"We must make the lives of all citizens in the region safe, give them freedom of movement and a common life," he said.
A NATO envoy brokered the deal on Monday as part of a multi-track process designed to reduce tension on several fronts. It included a clause on the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from a point near Bujanovac, just outside the zone.
A separate agreement between NATO and Belgrade was signed on Monday and will allow the Yugoslav army back into a 25 sq km part of the buffer zone running along the border with Macedonia.
In the Presevo Valley the ceasefire is seen as a prelude to political talks between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. The rebels say they are defending the ethnic Albanian population from Serb repression; Belgrade says they are terrorists whose only aim is to merge the Presevo Valley with the Kosovo province.
Before the NATO-led Kfor peacekeepers moved into Kosovo in June, 1999, they insisted on the buffer zone to keep Serb forces a safe distance from the province. But there have been many developments since then, notably the fall of the Milosevic regime in Belgrade.
The commander of the Albanian guerrilla group has warned he cannot guarantee the safety of returning Serb forces against "spontaneous actions of local Albanian elements".
Also, some Serb officials have expressed unease that NATO has placed so many restrictions on the returning forces that they may be unable to defend themselves from attack.
Yesterday the Yugoslav Defence Minister, Mr Slobodan Karpovic, welcomed the ceasefire but stressed the risks involved in sending Belgrade troops into the Kosovo buffer zone.
The truce was "encouraging news," he said after talks with his Bulgarian counterpart in Sofia.
Meanwhile, thousands of ethnic Albanians held a peaceful march in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, yesterday to press demands for minority rights as police again clashed with Albanian rebels near the border with Kosovo.