ALBANIA moved a step closer to early elections yesterday as the international mediator, Dr Franz Vranilzky, pursued his mission to restore stability and order.
Dr Vranitzky said leaders of the government and political parties had agreed after two days of talks that early elections should be held on June 29th, a breakthrough the former Austrian chancellor called "significant".
"I think that we have achieved some progress today," said Dr Vranilzky, the envoy of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
They are all of the opinion that the elections should take place on June 29th," he said.
About 300 people have been killed and more than 700 injured in a spasm of armed violence that erupted after fraudulent in vestment schemes collapsed earlier this year, wiping out the life savings of many Albanians.
An emergency all party government created during the height of the crisis in March agreed that early elections were crucial to restoring order. But the rival parties have made almost no progress on drafting an election law.
Dr Vranitzky, shuttling across Tirana in his closely guarded black limousine, said it was unrealistic to expect binding agreements in a matter of hours.
The current crisis in Albania has its roots in a contested election result in the last poll in May, 1996.
Albania's right wing President, Mr Sali Berisha, won 87 per cent of the vote but opposition parties refused to accept the results, saying there was widespread fraud. International observers said there were irregularities.
Dr Vranilzky cancelled a visit to the rebel held south yesterday, saying he wanted to push forward efforts to set up the elections. But he admitted security was also a factor.
Meanwhile, a multinational security mission to protect humanitarian aid convoys spread further across the country as Italian marines reached the key rebel strong hold of Vlore.
About 1,700 Italian, French Spanish, Greek and Turkish troops have arrived in Albania over the last three days. Romania Austria and Denmark will also contribute soldiers to the UN backed mission, which will grow to 6,000 within three weeks.
A small force of 25 Italian marines arrived in the port of Vlore, 150 km south of Tirana, to be greeted warmly by a group of about 50 Albanians. So me of the locals shouted "Down with Berisha" while the heavily armed marines inspected the harbour.
In the southern town of Gjirokaster two men were found shot dead in a luxury car yesterday morning. Police said the motive was unclear.
David Brough reports from Lushnje:
Dozens of gunmen ran amok at a hospital in southern Albania as they grieved over the death of a friend who was shot by accident.
As many as 40 gunmen burst into the operating room of the hospital on Wednesday night and fired wildly after the victim was brought in, riddling the walls with bullet holes and smashing windows, doctors said.
"There is no safety here," the hospital director, Dr Agim Bezati, said. No one was hurt in the 30 minute outburst at the hospital in Lushnje, 85 km south of Tirana.
Mr Metan Sula (35), a businessman, died when a friend gestured to him with a pistol and playfully pressed the trigger in the belief that it was unloaded, and shot him through the heart.
He was the latest of nearly 390 people who have died in the violence that swept the country sparked by anger over failed pyramid savings schemes.
The majority of the victims were killed, like the latest one, in accidental shootings by civilians mishandling weapons looted from army barracks after the army melted away in the face of an anti government uprising in the south that spread through the whole country.
The man who pulled the trigger fled and is now in hiding, doctors said.