Macedonia says offensive against rebels is over
Macedonian has declared an offensive against ethnic Albanian insurgents over, saying forces have regained key border areas with Kosovo.
Government spokesman Antonio Milososki did not indicate whether the end of the offensive meant a longer pause in fighting on the government side.
But he suggested negotiations ahead with ethnic Albanian factions in the struggle to keep the country together.
"The political battle is still to come," he said in the capital Skopje. "We must preserve Macedonia as our common country."
The Slav-dominated Macedonian government has refused to negotiate directly with the rebels, whom it considers terrorists fighting to split up Macedonia, but appears willing to talk to moderate ethnic Albanian political groups.
The rebels insist their fight is not separatist but an attempt to gain more rights for the ethnic Albanian minority - nearly a third of the country's population.
The rebels did not immediately comment on the government claim of military success. They had earlier said they were regrouping in the inaccessible hills around Tetovo, Macedonia's second-largest city.
A British-led task force of about 400 troops has deployed on the Kosovo side of the border area - including tanks, artillery and mortars - to support patrols of the frontier in the section of Kosovo under American control in the east.
