Rebel leader insists fighters will lay down their arms

Macedonia's ethnic Albanian guerrilla leader has declared that his fighters will hand over their weapons to NATO soldiers.

Ali Ahmeti, the political leader of the insurgents' National Liberation Army, says the time has come to work for peace.

Ahmeti told reporters that he has begun contacts with a NATO advance team that began moving into the country this weekend.

The Nato force's first task is to determine whether a tenuous cease-fire is holding well enough to deploy the full 3,500-troop mission.

"We will give up all our arms, because we will no longer have any need for them," he said.

The alliance will decide later this week whether to move ahead with the British-led Operation Essential Harvest.

The mission would collect rebel weapons - a key element of a peace deal aimed at ending the country's crisis.

The alliance's supreme allied commander in Europe, General Joseph Ralston, travels to Macedonia on Monday to take part in the security assessment.

Even as NATO's advance forces poured in, the shooting continued, although on a much smaller scale.

Macedonian state radio reported sporadic firefights overnight near the country's second-largest city, Tetovo, but said there were no casualties.