UNITED STATES BELIEVES MACEDONIAN NEGOTIATIONS HAVEN'T FAILED

WASHINGTON, July 19 (Hina) - The United States is confident that talks on a political settlement of Macedonia's situation have not failed, given that substantial progress has been achieved at the negotiations, a deputy spokesman for the State Department said on Thursday. Deputy spokesman Philip Reeker confirmed that international mediators James Pardew and Francois Leotards had contacted leaders of all political parties, including Arben Xhaferi, the head of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), during Thursday. Xhaferi, however, did not show up at a meeting of Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski and parliamentary party leaders on the same day. The negotiations process is continuing, Reeker stressed adding that he is confident that it paves the way to compromise, particularly because of the fact that nobody is riveted to a certain text. He declined to comment on reasons for why EU High Representative Javier Solana and NATO Secretary General George Robertson did not travel to Skopje on Thursday. According to a statement released from Brussels, Solana and Robertson seem to be very embittered by criticism of some Macedonian politicians, primarily Premier Ljubco Georgievski, who alleged that the West would like to see the collapse of Macedonia. In this context, Reeker said all international envoys had arrived in Macedonia at the invitation of the Macedonian government that asked them to help Skopje and ethnic Albanians to seek a solution of this crisis. (hina) sb ms