- guardian.co.uk, Friday June 15 2001 01.38 BST
Defence sources said Germany was putting together plans for a multinational "stabilisation force" several thousand strong.
Britain and other Nato allies were also preparing to extend their peacekeeping operations to Macedonia.
Although Lord Robertson, the Nato secretary general, insisted during a visit to Skopje yesterday that western military intervention was not on agenda, there is a growing belief that it is a matter of when, not whether, Nato troops will be sent there.
Nato military commanders, do not want to get involved in fighting in Macedonia. "We do not want to go in without something in place," one diplomat said, meaning the peace plan put forward by the Macedonian government.
Nato's military plans are for a force to shore up a peace agreement.
Lord Robertson said Boris Trajkovski, the Macedonian president, had asked Nato for help in disarming the rebels.
"I will be taking that request back to Nato headquarters to see what we can do," he said.
The rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) is also asking for help: it wants Nato to underpin a peace plan, including political reforms and an amnesty.
The Macedonian government has agreed to extend its ceasefire and is offering the Albanian minority greater involvement in state institutions and the guerrillas an amnesty if they lay down their arms.
The offer is based on the scheme which resulting in the Albanian rebels in southern Serbia disarming.
Lord Robertson said the government had agreed to prolong its period of military restraint "during the current political dialogue" .
He was in Skopje to put his weight behind an agreement to dissolve the NLA. "What is vital is for the political process to demonstrate that politics works and delivers," he said after meeting party leaders.
But he ruled out the rebels' involvement in talks, a key NLA demand.
"If the people are interested in political progress in this country, they must leave it to the politicians," he said.
Yesterday the guerrillas recaptured some of the high ground overlooking Tetovo, Macedonia's second city, and the villages of Shipkovica and Gajre.
Government troops continued to shell the hillside, destroying two houses.
