A peace agreement was signed on 13 August by the
Macedonian government and ethnic Albanian leaders in a bid to
put a stop to escalating violence in the country. The NATO
secretary-general, George Robertson, and the EU's high
representative, Javier Solana, both attended the signing
ceremony that their respective organisations had been
influential in bringing about. They recognised that the
agreement represents merely the first step towards a peaceful
resolution of the conflict and called for all parties to back
the deal.