Ethnic Albanian insurgents take over villages

Ethnic Albanian insurgents in northern Macedonia have moved into four villages close to the city of Tetovo.

State radio reports say the rebels took control of Otunje, Varvara, Setloe and Brezno, ordering villagers to leave.

Army spokesman Colonel Blagoja Markovski says that despite the rebel advance, the Tetovo region was "relatively calm" overnight, except for occasional sniper fire from outlying villages.

He says there had also been sporadic exchanges of small arms fire that lasted into the early morning near the city of Kumanovo after the "terrorists opened fire from several cars, and our forces returned fire".

It is the second day of low-level fighting after a lull that lasted for several days. Yesterday, clashes were reported in the highlands near the northern border with Kosovo.

The continued skirmishing reflected the difficult mission ahead for a new US envoy to Macedonia, sent by President George W Bush to help jump-start peace negotiations between the rebels and the Slav-dominated government.

James Pardew, the US State Department's European Bureau special adviser, was due to arrive in the capital Skopje today and is expected to work closely with his European Union counterpart Francois Leotard.

EU officials have warned Macedonia that further aid could be suspended if the country's Slavs and ethnic Albanians fail to bridge their differences.

Fighters continue using Kosovo as a safe haven, despite efforts by Nato-led peacekeepers to detain them.

Yesterday, peacekeepers reported detaining 90 suspected rebels from Macedonia over the past two days. Among them are a group of 48 ethnic Albanians detained in one house in eastern Kosovo, close to the border, on suspicion they are insurgents fighting Macedonian government forces.