Macedonia's politicians are running out of time to thrash out a deal intended to persuade Albanian guerrillas to disarm if they want early agreement from NATO to send in troops, Western diplomats said on Tuesday. Five days after the start of talks to agree concessions to Macedonia's Albanian minority, designed to undercut support for a four-month rebellion that has widened the ethnic divide, the process remains deadlocked despite heavy foreign pressure. Some European NATO allies are ready to start another Balkan operation and could announce an initial decision Wednesday -- but only if cross-party talks in Skopje can hammer out terms for averting civil war.
"Unfortunately the talks are going in two different directions," Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski told reporters.
Diplomats said the details of a workable amnesty are almost in place, but Albanian parties want the constitution rewritten in ways unpalatable to Macedonia's Orthodox Slav majority.
Politicians on both sides are being told that a NATO role depends on them finalizing terms of disarmament and the text of key clauses in the constitution. Even then troops would not be deployed immediately.
"We have to give some results by tonight or tomorrow, before a NATO meeting," a senior Albanian party official told mediapersons. Bureau Report