A motel owned by a Macedonian in the northwest flashpoint town of Tetovo was destroyed by an explosion on Sunday, police said.
No immediate information was available on the fate of two watchguards who were thought to be on duty in the motel when the blast struck.
The establishment was situated along the river Vardar, between the localities of Celopek, a district with a mixed ethnic Albanian and Macedonian population some 10 kilometers southeast of Tetovo, and Brvenica, which is populated only by Macedonians.
The explosion caused serious material damage at the motel complex, which includes a restaurant and a number of detached bungalows, police added.
The Albanian-dominated town of Tetovo has been the center of much of the fighting between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Macedonian government forces since the rebels launched an uprising in February.
The area around Celopek is not controlled by the rebels of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA), but they have nevertheless made frequent incursions into it.
Celopek is also the birth-place of hardline Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski.
The blast came as discussions resumed in Skopje between NATO and government officials over how many arms the guerrillas should hand over to be destroyed during the alliance's arms collection mission in the troubled country.
According to well-informed sources, quoted by local media, the two sides reached an impasse late Saturday after a heated debate during which Skopje's negotiators raised the possibility of suspending NATO's Operation Essential Harvest, due to begin on Monday.
But NATO officials said Sunday that they were confident of reaching an agreement over the number of arms to be collected.
NATO is reported to believe that a figure proposed by the NLA of around 3,300 is credible.
But on Saturday, Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski described NATO estimations as "laughable.”
Georgievski, a nationalist in Macedonia's unity government, said the guerrillas had 70,000 pieces of weaponry -- TETOVO, Macedonia (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
