Macedonian forces fired mortar rounds into rebel-held hills above Tetovo yesterday, but with little sign they were stemming an insurgency by ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said more than 22,000 civilians had fled their homes since fighting began more than a week ago. Most went to stay with friends and relatives elsewhere in Macedonia.
In the past 24 hours, a group of some 20 ethnic Albanian civilians, including 11 children, fled their mountain villages across the border to Kosovo, at least one with shrapnel wounds, a spokesman for NATO-led peacekeepers said.
Albanian political leaders in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo urged the Macedonian rebels to lay down their arms and return home.
Their call followed strenuous diplomatic efforts by Western leaders to persuade Kosovo's leadership to publicly shun the extremists, who say they are fighting for greater rights for Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority.
President Bush condemned the violence saying the US would provide military assistance to Skopje but thought the best way to end ethnic violence was through dialogue.
Mr Bush discussed the situation with the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, during an Oval Office meeting. He said afterwards that the US supported Mr Annan for a second term in office.
Meanwhile the insurgency appeared to have spread as security forces, firing heavy weapons from a distance, failed to stop guerrillas moving at will along the mountain ridges bordering Kosovo.
Tensions were high in Tetovo as ethnic Albanians buried a father and son gunned down by Macedonian police on Thursday in a failed grenade attack on a machine-gun position.
Around 300 ethnic Albanians attended the burial of Razim Koraci (60) and Ramadan Koraci (37), who died in a hail of bullets. Video film showed the son hurling a grenade after their car had been stopped by police.
A source close to the rebels yesterday said commanders of the guerrilla National Liberation Army were due to meet to discuss the ceasefire and were expected to stick to it unless government troops came within 500 metres of their positions.
Denis Staunton, European Correspondent, adds from Stockholm:
The European Union yesterday reaffirmed its support for the Macedonian government and promised practical help in addressing the grievances of the Albanian minority. After a meeting in Stockholm with the Macedonian President, Mr Boris Trajkovski, the 15 EU leaders repeated their condemnation of rebel violence.
But they called on Mr Trajkovski to institute effective political reforms to create a truly multi-ethnic society. The EU promised to build on its aid projects in Macedonia, which include work in the field of minority rights.
"At a time when new perspectives in the region are opening up, there is no place in our Europe for those who follow their path of intolerance, nationalism and violence," the EU leaders said in a statement.
In a veiled warning to the Albanian political leaders in Kosovo, the leaders warned that the EU would cut off aid to those who support violence.
"We will only support those who choose clearly peace, democracy, reconciliation and regional co-operation," they said.
Earlier President Putin compared the Albanian rebels in Macedonia to the separatist fighters in Chechnya and suggested that the international community should follow the Russian example in crushing them.
Mr Putin's suggestion found little favour in Stockholm and the EU's External Relations Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, was openly dismissive of it.
"I don't think that's the most exact comparison I've ever heard. I wouldn't counsel the Macedonian government to behave around Tetovo the way the Russians behaved around Grosny," he said.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague charged a Bosnian Serb suspect late last night with genocide during the Bosnian civil war, just hours after he had been handed over by the Serbian police.
The indictment accuses Mr Milomir Stakic (39) of planning, organising and setting up detention camps, including the notorious Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje prisons.