Rioters target ethnic Albanians

Peaceful protests in Skopje later turned violent

Rioters in the Macedonian capital Skopje have attacked ethnic Albanian shops and businesses after 10 Macedonian soldiers were killed in a rebel ambush.

A curfew was imposed after unrest in the town of Prilep, where many of the killed army reservists lived.

The mosque in Prilep was burnt down

A Macedonian policeman was also reported to have died in fighting with ethnic Albanian rebels during Wednesday night to the west of Macedonia's second city of Tetovo.

Macedonia's leadership has called for decisive military action against ethnic Albanian rebels who have been fighting the army for the past six months.

Retaliation

The country's National Security Council, which includes the president and prime minister, said there could be no question of implementing a peace deal brokered on Wednesday by Western mediators before the rebels had been pushed back from recently-seized territory in the north and west.

In Skopje, mobs looted ethnic Albanian shops and broke into a hospital where rebel fighters were thought to be receiving treatment.

Outside the parliament building, protesters waved Macedonian flags and chanted slogans against president Boris Trajkovski, whom they see as appeasing the rebels.

In the south western town of Prilep, demonstrators burned a mosque and Albanian-owned businesses, and broke into an army barracks to steal weapons.

The 10 soldiers were killed when the convoy they were accompanying to Tetovo was ambushed by rebel fighters.

A fierce gun battle followed the attack, near the town of Grupcin, with rebels and soldiers dug in on different sides of the motorway.

The deaths of two officers and eight reservists marked the highest number of casualties the Macedonians have suffered in a single day since the fighting began.

Breakthrough

The setback to peace comes after Wednesday's breakthrough in talks, which saw Western envoys manage to persuade Macedonian and ethnic Albanian leaders to initial an accord after 12 days of talks.

The looting and burning continued into the night

But all parties were sceptical when European Union negotiator Francois Leotard announced that there would be an official signing on Monday.

The deal is designed to grant ethnic Albanians, who make up about a third of Macedonia's population, new rights.

Nato has pledged to send in a 3,500-member force to oversee the disarming of the rebels once the final deal is signed.

But the renewed violence has threatened to undermine the agreement.

The BBC's Jonathan Charles in Skopje says many diplomats fear that once more Macedonia is lurching towards civil war.