1.   Armed rebels have been fighting for months with Macedonian authorities to improve the treatment of ethnic Albanian minorities.

2.   As the fighting in Kosovo intensifies, it also threatens to draw in Macedonia, where an ethnic Albanian minority also supports the separatists.

3.   But if the conflict there ends in civil war between its one-third ethnic Albanian minority and the Slav majority, it could have widespread consequences.

4.   But the state, while incorporating its ethnic Albanian minority into the government, has also sought to bolster its legitimacy by mythologizing Macedonian culture.

5.   European leaders are pondering how to provide security for unarmed international monitors needed to guarantee the rights of the ethnic Albanian minority foreseen under the peace plan.

6.   Fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians there could ignite secessionist turmoil in countries such as neighboring Macedonia that have large Albanian minorities.

7.   In Macedonia, fierce fighting cast doubt on prospects of agreement between parties representing the Slav majority and the substantial Albanian minority in the southern Balkan republic.

8.   It is the place where an armed rebellion by the ethnic Albanian majority against their Serb rulers could easily draw in restive Albanian minorities in neighboring Macedonia and Montenegro.

9.   Last Wednesday, the top political leaders of the majority Slavic Macedonians and the ethnic Albanian minority initialed a broad agreement to end six months of fighting.

10.   Macedonia, with a large Albanian minority, could also face pressure to intervene.