SKOPJE (Islamweb & Agencies) - Macedonia's polarised politicians resume peace talks on Saturday after top European Union and NATO officials twisted their arms in a new bid to stave off civil war. (Read photo caption below).
President Boris Trajkovski will chair the talks, in the lake resort of Okhrid, between the leaders of four mainstream parties -- two Macedonian and two Albanian -- that comprise the shaky emergency government coalition.
Two Western mediators, U.S. envoy James Pardew and EU negotiator Francois Leotard, met Trajkovski twice on Friday, their offices said. They discussed the most sticky issue -- the future status of the Albanian language in the small Balkan republic.
Diplomats said Leotard and Pardew gave Trajkovski a revised draft of peace proposals that would make Albanian an official language in the swathes of northern and western Macedonia where most of the country's one third minority lives.
The regions are now Albanian strongholds.
The basis of a peace deal is all but agreed, but the issue still dividing Macedonians and Albanians cuts to the core of the identity of the 10-year-old former Yugoslav republic.
Macedonians balk at endorsing a reform seen as the thin end of the wedge that ends with the division of a country they view as their own, especially with gunmen at large.
Leotard and Pardew also met leaders of the Albanian parties in Macedonia's unofficial ethnic Albanian capital of Tetovo.
NO SERIOUS CHANGES
Arben Xhaferi, leader of the biggest ethnic Albanian party, DPA, told local reporters the new draft did not mark any serious change from the previous document.
He said further talks would not be held in Tetovo, as planned earlier, ``because the gentlemen from Skopje don't feel comfortable in Tetovo.''
The city was buffeted by gunbattles between government troops and National Liberation Army Albanian fighters this week.
The fighting jeopardised a 15-day-old cease-fire but it was reinstated through NATO mediation on Wednesday.
This allowed EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO Secretary-General George Robertson to pay a flying visit to Skopje on Thursday in a bid to use the lull in fighting to restart wider inter-party political talks.
After a day of talks Solana and Robertson announced that the talks would resume. The dialogue aims to undercut popular support for a five-month Albanian armed revolt by granting more rights to Macedonia's one-third Albanian minority.
Solana and Robertson have made frequent visits to Skopje proclaiming to have advanced the peace process, but talks have almost always hit snags after their departure.
Western involvement in peace talks has angered ordinary Macedonians, who staged violent anti-Western riots in Skopje on Tuesday. Some top officials accused the West of siding with the Albanians.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson (L) speaks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on arrival at Skopje airport July 26, 2001. Robertson said on arrival that ethnic Albanian rebels had started heeding an agreement to pull back from areas near the western city of Tetovo. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)