Macedonian leaders meet today for crisis talks on a plan to end the insurgency by ethnic Albanian rebels as pressure from the European Union and NATO grows.
The coalition government that includes both Slavs and Albanians may get NATO help to disarm the rebels if it makes a deal but also faces harming relations with the EU if it fails.
"These talks have to be productive. They are very much under pressure," one Western diplomatic source said. "The biggest issue that has to be overcome is actually to lay all the issues on the table and start resolving them."
A four-day ceasefire - the clearest in four months of conflict - has been extended while leaders of the two main Slav and two Albanian parties in the coalition meet in parliament in Skopje today.
The parties have to work out details of a plan by President Boris Trajkovski that would offer rebels incentives to disarm, implement a lasting truce and accelerate constitutional reforms.
The parties have all agreed an outline plan but the details have not yet been established.
The rebels say ethnic Albanians, who make up about 30 percent of Macedonia's two-million population, suffer discrimination at the hands of the Slavs. Less than 10 percent of public sector jobs are held by Albanians.