By Elisaveta Konstantinova

                            SKOPJE, Macedonia (Reuters) - A NATO
                           delegation was expected in
                           Macedonia on Wednesday to help it deal with a
                           flare-up of tension along the Kosovo border.

      A government spokesman said the delegation was due in the capital Skopje
      later in the day, following a decision taken by the first NATO foreign
      ministers' meeting with the new Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web
      sites) in Brussels Tuesday.

      NATO officials said it would be led by Major General Robert Dierker, who
      recently visited a nearby troublespot in Serbia.

      U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), ``gravely
      concerned'' by the flare-up, urged ``all the parties to exercise restraint and
      remains convinced that the situation must be resolved by political means,''
      spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.

      Stressing the international community's commitment to Macedonia's stability
      and security, Annan said he was encouraged by the NATO mission's visit
      and by stepped-up patrols along the border between Kosovo and
      Macedonia by the KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo, Eckhard said.

      A Reuters reporter in Kosovo heard a fresh exchange of fire Wednesday
      from the village of Tanusevci inside Macedonia, the focus of concern since
      shooting broke out there Monday. It began shortly after noon (6 a.m. EST)
      and lasted half an hour.

      The village is near the Presevo Valley in southern Serbia, where ethnic
      Albanian rebels have clashed with Serb police in a security zone adjoining
      Kosovo set up in 1999 to separate forces under command of then Yugoslav
      President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) from NATO-led troops in
      Kosovo.

      Serb officials said a Serb policeman had been injured in the latest clash on
      Wednesday morning.

      Macedonia -- a tiny state with one third of its population ethnic Albanian --
      borders Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia and its mainly Albanian Kosovo
      province and is seen as vulnerable to any spillover of violence from Presevo
      or Kosovo itself.

      Skopje says ethnic Albanian ``terrorist'' groups have emerged in recent
      weeks along the border with Kosovo. The area is populated mostly by ethnic
      Albanians and Tanusevci is beyond the control of Macedonia's forces.

      Macedonian officials said a joint army and police patrol came under fire near
      the village Monday and that several shots were fired toward an army
      observation post Tuesday. There have been no reports of casualties.

                            Cries Of Alarm

                           Responding to cries of alarm from the
                           Macedonian government and warnings that it
                           may have to intervene militarily, NATO
                           Secretary-General George Robertson said
                           Tuesday he was sending a mission to Macedonia
                           to try to help.

      ``NATO is committed to supporting the stability and security of...Macedonia,
      including the enhanced security of its borders,'' Robertson told a news
      conference after the ministers' meeting.

      Macedonia's government, a coalition of parties which represent ethnic
      Macedonians and ethnic Albanians, says KFOR has not done enough to help
      secure the border, which is unmarked and porous.

      NATO has promised to step up KFOR patrols on the Kosovo side but said
      it could not put troops there ''shoulder-to-shoulder.''

      The Reuters journalist, reporting from about half a mile from the border, said
      U.S. KFOR peacekeepers in the area took up positions as soon as they
      heard the shots and scoured the area with binoculars. He could not tell who
      was firing.

      The government said Tuesday it had written to the United Nations (news -
      web sites) and NATO to warn that it may have to use military force.

      ``We are asking the U.N. to openly support an eventual intervention in
      Tanusevci,'' the president's National Security Adviser Nikola Dimitrov told
      Reuters Wednesday.

      A senior Western diplomat in Skopje said the move was more of an appeal
      for international help than a real intention to cross into Kosovo and fight.

      ``The government is sending a stronger signal for help. They have been asking
      for help for quite some time. Now they want to show that they can offer
      something themselves. It is more like saber rattling,'' the diplomat said.