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The main danger was the spread of the crisis to Kosovo and Western Macedonia, two areas bordering on Albania where the tensions between the ethnic Albanians, who represented the large majority of the population, and the ruling govemments of Belgrade and Skopje respectively had increased in the last few months. [...] The Italian government announced officially its initiative to promote the creation of a "multinational protection force" in Albania in a statement of 26 March to the OSCE Chairman-in- Office32 and in a letter of 27 March to the UN Secretary-Generai.33 In the latter, it also declared its willingness to take the lead in the organization and the command of the operation. [...] On 28 March the Permanent Representative of Albania to the United Nations senta letter to the President of the Security Council, welcoming the readiness of a number of countries to participate in the proposed force and stating that "Albania is looking forward to the arrivai of such a force." 34 On 27 March the Permanent Council of the OSCE expressed appreciation for the Italian initiative, taking. [...] The OSCE Council also took the decision "to establish an OSCE presence in Albania in co-operation with the Albanian authorities and to provide the coordinating framework within which other intemational 31 In a speech before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised the choice, in the case of the international intervention in Albani. [...] The WEU took over the task of helping the training, reorganization, and reinforcement of the Albanian police forces through the establishment of an ad hoc mission called Multinational Advisory Police Element -- analogous to the task that had already been assigned to the WEU in the framework of the international post-conflict rehabilitation activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina.