British Foreign Minister Jack Straw is to visit Macedonia to urge the country's leaders to hold the ceasefire and seek a political solution with the Albanian minority, Downing Street said on Monday.
Straw will have a day of talks in Skopje, the Macedonian capital on Tuesday said a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair.
A fragile ceasefire has ended weeks of hostilities between Macedonian troops and Kosovan Albanian guerillas. The ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia complains they are not given fair treatment.
Blair's spokesman said: "The British government is committed, along with other European leaders, to trying to underpin the political talks that are going on at the moment in Macedonia."
"We obviously welcome the fact that the ceasefire has been called and the fighting has stopped, temporarily, and we hope that will be permanent."
A spokesman for the foreign ministry said Straw will fly out on Tuesday afternoon, returning the next day.
He is scheduled to meet President Boris Trajkovski, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and leaders of the political parties, said the spokesman.
Straw will try to continue the work of European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who brokered the ceasefire on a vist to Skopje last week -- LONDON (AFP)
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