Lord Owen warns Nato on Balkan war threat

LORD OWEN, the EC negotiator on the former Yugoslavia, warned Nato yesterday that war could soon spread in the Balkans and said the West must be ready to deal with the consequences, writes Annika Savill.

He told Nato ambassadors in Brussels that the spark to ignite the province of Kosovo could come at any time.

As Greece intensified its campaign over Macedonia, a Greek minister flew to London to talk with Labour MPs pressing for recognition of the republic. Virginia Tsoudero said that, while Athens was grateful to EC governments for withholding recognition, 'the rest of the political world is uninformed'. She said Macedonia was a 'weak little undemocratic entity that can very easily be used by outside forces'.