The latest upsurge of fighting in Macedonia enters its third day today amid growing fears for the Balkans' fragile stability and the fate of civilians trapped in the fighting.
Ethnic Albanian rebels, who have killed 10 Macedonian soldiers and police in a week, have been condemned by the West for attacks that have undermined dialogue on minority Albanian demands for more rights and polarized civilians on both sides.
On Friday, Macedonian security forces poured heavy artillery and helicopter fire on suspected rebel positions in the mountains of the Kumanovo area, some 25 miles northwest of the capital Skopje.
Rebels responded with automatic weapons.
On Friday evening, in an as yet unexplained development, a long convoy of armored personnel carriers and buses with troops left Kumanovo.
Despite the firing, few civilians have so far left the area.
Mr Carlo Ungaro, ambassador of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, cited three possible reasons for their reluctance - unwillingness to become refugees, possible intimidation by the rebels, or sympathy for them, particularly among younger people.
The rebels say they are fighting for equal rights for Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority - around one third of the two million population. But their actions have been condemned by Western powers as a potential spark for wider Balkan conflict.
"There has been heavy fighting and the situation is deteriorating every moment," NLA spokesman Mr Dren Korabi told Reuters. "The Macedonian army is shelling civilian targets and our forces are acting in self-defense."
The government began talks with Albanian political leaders to deal with alleged discrimination against ethnic Albanians. But dialogue has stopped since last week's NLA killing of eight Macedonian troops and police and the anti-Albanian riots.
International authorities are anxious to prevent the Macedonian flare-up bringing a return of conflict and chaos in the Balkans.
Mr Bodo Hombach, coordinator of the Balkan Stability Pact, said on Friday speeding up the delivery of Western economic aid to Macedonia was one way to achieve this.
He told Reutersoutside a NATO conference in Bucharest that promoting economic stability could ensure the ethnic Albanian rebels remained isolated.
"The mainstream ethnic Albanian political leadership still has authority in Macedonia," he said. "They want their economic and social security and it's much cheaper for us to prevent conflict than to wage it."
A Macedonian parliamentary session to address the crisis was postponed on Friday.
It had been due to hear President Boris Trajkovski who returned from Washington, where he received strong U.S. support for dialogue and a pledge of economic and military aid.
Russia, seeking to restore its influence in the Balkans, urged "decisive force" from Macedonian authorities.
"We said before and we think now that an end must be put to the terrorist lawlessness unleashed by Albanian guerrillas, including by using decisive force to achieve that," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson is expected to visit Skopje on Monday. European Union foreign and security policy chief Mr Javier Solana is due to arrive on Sunday after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Sweden.