The EU’s security affairs chief today reaffirmed his push for a peaceful solution to end Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian insurgency, urging the rebels to let the political process run its course.

Macedonia has given ethnic Albanian rebels 24 hours to end their armed insurrection or face all-out assault.

The army mounted a heavy artillery attack to push ethnic Albanian rebels northward, but the scene in Shipkovica, a hill town above Macedonia’s second-largest city, reflected a rebel force ready to stay put and step up their fight.