(21 Aug 2001)

1. Phillip Reeker, U-S State Department spokesman walking in to press briefing
2. Cutaway reporters
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Phillip Reeker, U-S State Department spokesman
"We think that the Macedonian political leaders, the democratically elected legitimate leaders who represent all Macedonians, of all nationalities and ethnicities, citizens of Macedonia, that they have taken very courageous steps. They have worked on some very difficult issues for them and under President Trajkovski's leadership and support from experts, who are experienced in these issues from the United States and European Union. I think they have worked out a very solid political agreement that allows them to focus on moving forward to address legitimate concerns, to maintain the integrity of the country and sovereignty of the country which we have supported all along."
4. Cutaway reporters
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Phillip Reeker, U.S. State Department spokesman. "Yeah, well his retirement came early. Ah, we are certainly glad to see that and I hope that he blows out the candles on his cake. (Reporter shouting out: "He doesn't get a cake!") Ah, the metaphorical - or maybe metaphysical cake, that he thinks back a little bit to all the suffering he caused, hundred of thousands, millions of people in the Balkans as he implemented policies that were rather outdated and belong in a medieval state rather than contemporary Europe. So we are now working with the democratic forces in Serbia and Yugoslavia and throughout the region that have been able to build themselves back up after all of the harm and heart ache he caused - and that is where our focus is - not on birthday wishes."
6. Wide shot of briefing

STORYLINE:

The United States praised the Macedonian government on Monday for taking "courageous steps" towards ending the six-month ethnic-Albanian rebel insurgency.

State Department spokesman Phillip Reeker told reporters at a press briefing in Washington that the United States believes the government of President Trajkovski has worked out a "solid political agreement."

Reeker's comments come as NATO's supreme commander in Europe launched a fact-finding mission in Macedonia - weighing whether the time is right to deploy 3-thousand 500 troops into the country to collect rebel arms.

General Joseph Ralston met with NATO officials already in the Balkan country as well as with President Boris Trajkovski and the nation's defence and interior ministers.

He said he will report his findings to NATO's ruling body, which will authorise the full deployment.

Also at the State Department briefing, Reeker was asked by a reporter if the U-S had any birthday wishes for former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic who turned sixty on Monday.

Reeker joked that Milosevic's "retirement came early" and added that he hoped he would use his time in prison to reflect on the "suffering he caused...(to) hundred of thousands, millions of people in the Balkans."

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