Macedonia rebels 'disband'

The rebels have surrendered 3,875 weapons to Nato

The political leader of ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia, Ali Ahmeti, says his troops have formally disbanded, bringing to an end a seven-month-old insurgency.

Last night at midnight, the NLA formally disbanded and as of last night, all the former fighters became regular citizens

Ali Ahmeti

Mr Ahmeti told a news conference the fighters were returning to civilian life, and that the rebel movement - the National Liberation Army (NLA) - had not ruled out entering politics.

The announcement comes after Nato completed its mission to collect arms from the rebels.

But correspondents say it is likely to get a cautious reception from Macedonian politicians who argue the rebels still hold sizeable numbers of weapons.

Ali Ahmeti: Combined security forces may enter former NLA-held areas

A spokesman for the nationalist VMRO party, Gjorgi Trendafilov, said: "What's important for us is that we still have 70,000 refugees, people who under the threat of guns, were forced to leave their homes. It's important now to allow people to return to their homes."

Mr Ahmeti said "combined security forces", with international and Macedonian components, were welcome to enter areas formerly controlled by the NLA.

The Nato troops who collected 3,875 rebel weapons during a 30-day mission began leaving the country on Thursday, and a new mission took over the task of guaranteeing the security of international ceasefire observers.

Referendum risk

It consists of 1,000 soldiers under German command and has a three-month mandate from the United Nations.

The Macedonian Government formally approved the new mission on Thursday after disagreements over its size and duration were resolved.

A BBC correspondent in Macedonia, Paul Anderson, says the next stage in the Western-backed peace process should happen next week, when the parliament is to ratify a package of constitutional amendments improving the position of the Albanian minority.

The plan, which the two sides signed up to in August, is designed to stave off the threat of a full-scale civil war in Macedonia.

Originally the constitutional amendments were to have been completed - and an amnesty for the rebels approved - at the same time as the weapons were collected.

However this has not happened, and nationalists have tabled a proposal to put the amendments to a referendum, raising the danger of the whole process getting bogged down in delays.