The United States secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, has been making a brief visit to Macedonia.

She told American troops there, waiting to go into Kosovo, that they were doing what America was really good at -- helping other countries to get on their feet.

At the Stenkovec refugee camp Mrs Albright was greeted by a cheering crowd of several thousand refugees; she pledged that NATO would work with them to give them a normal life.

She then went on to have talks with the Macedonian President, Kiro Gligorov.