Powell urges Balkans peace

Powell was forced to call off visits to Kosovo and Bosnia

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has told Kosovo Albanian leaders they must do more to prevent new violence.

Powell is wrapping up a European tour, in which he has voiced America's support for democracy in the Balkans but warned that to retain international backing, violence in Macedonia must be denounced.

"We call on Kosovars to join us in denouncing and isolating extremists whose actions are eroding international support for Kosovo and sympathy for its people," he said.

Bad weather forced Powell to call off a visit to Kosovo on Friday, and he instead met representatives of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population and the international administration for the province in the Macedonian capital, Skopje.

Before leaving for Bosnia, he said: "In the meeting I just completed, I did hear the leaders say that they will forswear violence and I encouraged them to speak out candidly to all the people that they represent and the people they are leading that violence is not the answer."

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During Powell's three-day tour he repeated a U.S. commitment to support Macedonia and to continue to help maintain stability in the Balkans.

Powell's visit to the Balkans follows the recent armed conflict between Macedonian government troops and rebels demanding more rights for the country's ethnic Albanian minority.

"You can be sure of the American support of your efforts, political support, economic support and military support," Powell told Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski on Thursday in a strong endorsement of Macedonian unity.

Reassuring Europe of its role in the Balkans, Powell said the Bush administration had no timetable for the removal of U.S. forces from the region.

"We are constantly talking to our friends in NATO and others who are present in the region to see how best to perform the mission," he said.

"But there is no endpoint. We have established no time by which U.S. troops have to be out."

During the U.S. election campaign, Bush said he would like to bring U.S. forces home from Balkan peacekeeping missions, which were established in Bosnia and Kosovo during the presidency of his predecessor, Bill Clinton.

With the blessing of the U.S. the foreign ministers of countries of south-east Europe pledged in a conference in Skopje on Thursday to boost co-operation, condemning the recent violence in Macedonia and Bosnia.

"The ministers unanimously rejected the use of violence for achieving political agendas," said the 11-point statement read by Macedonia's Foreign Minister, Srdjan Kerim. "Such activities have no place in democratic societies."

U.S. aid to the former Yugoslav republic will total more than $55 million in economic assistance, Powell said at the conference.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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