Bomb blast at Macedonia police HQ

Macedonian and ethnic Albanian policemen on patrol

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- A bomb blast gutted a police headquarters in Macedonia but has failed to derail immediate peace plans, officials have said.

The explosion ruined the municipal and police headquarters in Tearce 35 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of Skopje, without injuring anyone.

Ethnic Albanians said the hasty deployment of joint Macedonian and ethnic Albanian police patrols in their villages was to blame for the bombing.

But the government has pledged to carry on with the scheme, which is part of a wide-ranging peace plan for the Former Yugoslav republic.

The cease-fire deal between government troops and ethnic Albanian rebels provided for greater Albanian access to public service jobs and wider recognition for the Albanian language.

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The rebels, who handed in more than 3,500 weapons as part of the deal, also wanted an amnesty protecting them from being prosecuted for taking part in the fighting.

Llokman Elizi, the mayor of Tearce and an ethnic Albanian whose office was demolished in the blast, said: "We don't know who attacked the building, but it is clear that the government must be more careful about the activities it is undertaking."

He added that the government and international co-ordinators were paying the price for failing to win over local opinion.

"I warned them that there was serious discontent and fear among the people over the lack of amnesty legislation." Elizi told Reuters news agency.

Ethnically mixed police units accompanied by international peace monitors began patrolling Tearce and four other villages on Monday in a confidence-building exercise designed to restore state authority in rebel-dominated areas.

The programme was meant to complement parliamentary action on constitutional reforms to improve the rights of the ethnic Albanian minority two months after the signing of a Western-brokered peace plan.

Parliament is now due to debate ratification of the reforms on Wednesday -- one month late and amid warnings by Macedonian nationalists that they will water down some key clauses.

Harald Schenker, from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, condemned the bombing, adding that the West would "try our best not to allow for the disruption of the peace process."