Macedonian civilians flee as fighting intensifies

Hundreds of residents have begun leaving the Macedonian city of Tetovo after a government-issued deadline for the ethnic Albanian rebels to lay down their arms expired at noon.

The Macedonian Government issued the ultimatum last night after the conflict in the former Yugoslav republic intensified.

The National Liberation Army has attacked an army base near Tetovo, seized several police checkpoints and surrounded four villages on the outskirts of the city.

In a statement, Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski and Interior Minister Ljuben Boskoski said: "Unless the rebels pull out to their previous positions by noon, we will no longer listen to suggestions from any Western mediator and an offensive is not excluded as an option."

Mobs of Macedonians attacked the US, British and German Embassies in the capital, Skopje, last night, accusing NATO and the West of backing the ethnic Albanian rebels.

The violence in Macedonia spiralled dangerously towards civil war last week when the country's ruling party rejected a NATO-backed peace proposal that, among other things, would have made Albanian an official language alongside Macedonian.

The ethnic Albanians claim they are merely fighting for equality, but the Government believes they are trying to split Macedonian in two and unite one half with Kosovo and, ultimately, a Greater Albania.