Macedonian peace talks made a breakthrough on policing last night, and mediators expressed hope a political deal aimed at defusing an ethnic Albanian rebellion could be finalised today.
"We can say with some satisfaction that the two main difficulties, language and police . . . have been approved," EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana told reporters after a day of tough talks.
"Tomorrow they will finalise the fine tuning of the framework document," he said of a package of measures meant to undercut a five-month-old insurgency and avert a new Balkan war.
Leaders of the main Macedonian and ethnic Albanian political parties have been meeting for just over a week at a lakeside mansion in Ohrid, southwest Macedonia work out reforms designed to encourage the rebels to disarm.
"The hard part is behind us," US envoy Mr James Pardew said after the announcement by Mr Solana, who made a one-day visit to Macedonia to add to pressure for an agreement. "We'll try and get it done tomorrow, but no guarantees."
The rebels are not represented at the talks, but many of their demands mirror those by ethnic Albanian parties.
Discussions about an amnesty - a key rebel demand - is not part of the agreement under discussion and will have to be finalised afterwards.
They will be complicated by a move initiated by Macedonia's hardline Interior Minister to have rebel leaders arrested and charged with war crimes.
Ethnic Albanians make up one third of the population of the former Yugoslav republic but only 6 per cent of the police. Under last night's deal they would get 1,000 more police jobs within two years, but control of police forces would stay under Skopje's control, as demanded by the Macedonians.
Ethnic Albanian demands for a bigger role in the police had been one of the most contentious issues after a landmark agreement on Wednesday on giving the Albanian language limited official status alongside Macedonian.
The legislature is meant to approve the bulk of the peace deal within 45 days but one of the Macedonian negotiators said it could take two months to get everything through parliament, where there is likely to be fierce criticism of any concessions.
Once the guerrillas agree to disarm, NATO has agreed to send 3,000 troops to help collect weapons for a month but is nervous about deploying without cast-iron guarantees of peace in case it gets dragged into a long-term mission.