A government spokesman is quoted saying leaders of the nation's main ruling and opposition parties, representing majority Slavs and minority ethnic Albanians, had agreed to form a coalition government to deal with the crisis. A related Reuters dispatch says Slav and ethnic Albanian parties in the national unity government will command 96 seats in the 120-seat parliament, providing a strong base for a coalition to steer the republic out of crisis. Earlier, Reuters stressed that a deal on a government of national unity is seen by the West as a key move to avert civil war. In western eyes, the dispatch noted, the ideal strategy centers on depriving the Albanian guerrillas of all plausible political support while driving them out without inflicting major civilian casualties. The situation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia remains a prominent theme in international media.
Commentators note that the idea of declaring a state of war appears off the agenda for now.
They generally attribute this to diplomatic efforts by EU foreign policy chief Solana and NATO Secretary General Robertson. It adds, however, that Robertson as well as Solana tried to convince the Skopje authorities of the need for a dialogue with the ethnic Albanians. Under pressure from senior NATO and EU officials, the Skopje government put off plans to declare a state of war, says a related article in The Guardian . The Independent writes that a day of hectic EU and NATO diplomacy ended with a postponement of a session of Parliament which would have debated whether to give the government war powers. The Wall Street Journal observes that while NATO Secretary General Robertson pledged military advice and political support to the Skopje government, he made no commitments regarding troops.