Macedonia may give in to international pressure and accept a long-term foreign military presence to avoid a return to violence, a senior government source said today.
"There is a lot of pressure, so we can expect a modification in our current resolute position of having no [extended] foreign military presence," the source told reporters.
The same source said yesterday Skopje had ruled out an extended NATO peace mission after the current one to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian guerrillas finishes at the end of the month.
The idea of an extension had been backed by European Union foreign ministers over the weekend.
Echoing Macedonian President Mr Boris Trajkovski, the source said something similar to a small United Nations force that helped maintain stability with border patrols from 1992 to 1999 might be acceptable.
NATO commander for Europe Gen Joseph Ralston, who paid an unscheduled visit to Skopje yesterday, floated the idea of combining the NATO force with a UN contingent, the source said.