Macedonia has asked NATO to keep 350 troops in the Balkan nation after the alliance's mandate to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels expires, government and NATO officials said.
Macedonia requested the troops to protect monitors who will assess the situation after NATO forces end their weapons collection mission Sept. 26, government sources said.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization found the proposals "very constructive and useful," alliance spokesman Mark Laity said, but he declined to confirm the troop figure cited by the sources.
Yves Brodeur, a spokesman at NATO headquarters in Brussels, said no formal request had been received. He said a force to protect monitors would not necessarily need any U.N. sanction or approval.
