Macedonia’s president Boris Trajkovski was killed today when his plane crashed in a mountainous part of southern Bosnia en route to an international investment conference.

A plane carrying Macedonia’s president to an international investment conference in Bosnia crashed in a mountainous area today.

A plane carrying Macedonia’s president Boris Trajkovski to an international investment conference in Bosnia disappeared from radar, US officials said.

Heeding Nato and European Union warnings that Macedonia faces the risk of renewed ethnic warfare, leaders of the country’s majority Macedonians and ethnic Albanians pledged to revive stalled reforms under a Western-sponsored peace accord.

Macedonians disagreed today over the prospects of a peace deal even as the country’s leaders took steps to allow Nato troops to disarm ethnic Albanian rebels.

A new demand by the Macedonian Government for ethnic Albanian rebels to disarm completely prior to final approval of a deal has temporarily stalled peace negotiations.

Macedonian Government officials and ethnic Albanian leaders have gathered in the southern city of Ohrid to resume high-level peace talks aimed at ending a rebel insurgency in the north of the country.

New fighting and anti-Government demonstrations in Macedonia have marred optimism over a Nato-brokered deal designed to accomplish a pull-out of ethnic Albanian rebels from a strategically important suburb near the capital Skopje.

Macedonian Government forces pounded rebel strongholds with artillery, tanks and helicopter gunships today despite the resumption of talks between ethnic Albanian and Slav politicians aimed at ending the violence.

Macedonia's army has launched a fresh offensive to clear ethnic Albanian rebels from the hills along the northern border with Kosovo.