The Macedonian government called a truce with ethnic Albanian rebels yesterday, as the country's political parties prepared to sign a peace accord aimed at ending the threat of civil war in the Balkan country.
A Macedonian government source said a ceasefire was due to begin at 7:30 p.m. (6.30 p.m. Irish time) yesterday unless provoked by the rebels, who launched a six-month insurgency in February in the north of the country.
"In order to give peace a chance, the government has declared a unilateral ceasefire," the official said.
Officials said that government forces reserved the right to strike back if they came under attack from the guerrillas, but that the situation was relatively calm after several days of fierce fighting.
Earlier yesterday, security forces and rebels exchanged fire around villages north and west of Skopje, a day after violence flared in Tetovo, the main ethnic Albanian town which has been the scene of many of the clashes between rebels and government forces.
Macedonia called the truce after all four political parties in the government coalition said they would go ahead today with the signing of a peace deal agreed last Wednesday.
The internationally brokered peace deal is aimed at heading off the crisis in Macedonia by bolstering the rights of the country's ethnic Albanian minority, who make up a third of the country's population.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, who helped broker the peace accord, was expected to arrive in Skopje around 10 a.m. (7 a.m. Irish time) on Monday to attend the signing ceremony.
The NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson, was also expected to attend.
Signature of the accord would pave the way for NATO to disarm the rebels.
Whether the peace sticks, however, largely depends on the rebels themselves. They were not represented at the peace talks, and it is not clear whether they will agree to lay down their arms.
A rebel spokesman described the truce called by Skopje as a "farce".
"I think the Macedonian side will continue the battle," a rebel spokesman known as Captain Shpati said.
"All the previous statements of the Macedonian side were telling us that they would continue military actions against us," said Shpati, who describes himself as an official mouthpiece of the self-styled National Liberation Army.
NATO has said it will only carry out the disarmament if the rebels voluntarily agree to lay down their arms.
The White House yesterday hailed as "a courageous step" the planned signing of the peace accord, and urged all parties to resist resorting to violence.
"We understand that a formal agreement may be signed on Monday. This is a courageous step that the parties have taken," a White House national security council spokesman said.
NATO said yesterday it had increased efforts to seal the border between Macedonia and Kosovo, following reports ethnic Albanian rebels had slipped across it.
The move followed an appeal by the Macedonian President, Mr Boris Trajkovski, for the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) to "fulfil its mission and secure the border so as to stop rebel incursions into Macedonia."
"We have responded to the President's call and have stepped up efforts to seal the border," an alliance spokesman said. "NATO and KFOR are doing everything they can to stop the infiltrations and arms trafficking across the border," he added.