"The situation there is much harder than it is here, because yesterday in Bitola they simply didn't have any other fire-fighting aircraft than ours. The situation is expected to improve today because a Slovene helicopter is due to arrive, and Turkey and Russia are also expected to send one helicopter each," Roncevic told reporters on the southern Adriatic island of Solta during a visit to areas burnt by brush fires.
"If necessary, and I hope it won't be, we will certainly withdraw our plane immediately," he said, stressing that the decision to send the fire-fighting plane to Macedonia had been made carefully.