NATO forces have completed the second phase of collecting arms from ethnic rebels in Macedonia, under a Western-backed peace plan for the fragile Balkan state, a spokesman said Thursday.
The Alliance now hopes that Macedonia's parliament will rapidly resume debate on constitutional amendments to strengthen the rights of ethnic Albanians, to end a seven-month insurgency, he said.
NATO officials informed Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski Thursday morning that it had collected easily more than two thirds of the 3,300 arms it is scheduled to gather by September 26.
"We have comfortably exceeded the two thirds total," said spokesman Mark Laity. "The way is clear for the next stage of the political process," he added.
"We are now looking forward to the Macedonian government keeping to the timetable that it set itself. The faster we move, the faster normal politics can resume," he added.
Under the August 13 Western-backed peace deal, Skopje agreed to the deployment of over 4,500 NATO troops to collect arms from the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA).
In return parliament is debating, in three phases alternating with the arms collection, constitutional amendments including making Albanian an official language and boosting Albanian participation in police forces.
NATO is due to begin pulling out of Macedonia from September 26 -- SKOPJE (AFP)
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