Ali Ahmeti

The leader of the Democration Union of Integration (DUI) in Macedonia said Thursday the party was working on a "Plan B" that would be triggered to secure the formation of a government.

After a meeting on Wednesday night, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, confirmed that one key obstacle to backing a new opposition Social Democrat-led government - a new law extending the use of the Albanian language - had been removed.

The ethnic Albanian parties involved in organizing a planned roundtable of Albanian leaders, which is designed to oversee fulfillment of the objectives of the parties' joint declaration, have traded blamed over its failure to take shape.

Macedonia's Parliamment sent a formal notice to inform President Gjorge Ivanov no government can be formed by VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski.

Ivanov earlier said he would kick off consultations with all political parties.

The two biggest parties, VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, openly disagree on what Ivanov's next step should be.

VMRO-DPMNE of Nikola Gruevski and ethnic Albanian DUI party of Ali Ahmeti have not agreed to form a new government within the 20-day deadline which expired on Sunday.

No agreement has been reached on forming a new government between VMRO-DPMNE and DUI, state-run news agency MIA quotes Gruevski as saying.

The Democratic Union of Albania (DUI) on Sunday is expected to decide whether to join hands with conservative VMRO-DPMNE to form together with it the country's next government.

DUI has been refraining from a decision for days, almost exhausting the week-long deadline VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski has in order to form a cabinet.

Ali Ahmeti, leader of Macedonia's main ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, on Wednesday said the DUI will start negotiations with VMRO DPMNE since it had received a mandate to form the next government.

VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski has been given a mandate to form the next government of Macedonia, state-run MIA news agency reports.

Gruevski's conservative party, leading a coalition in the snap parliamentary election in December, got the biggest number of votes, but won the poll only by a small margin.

Representatives of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian parties on Saturday in Skopje signed a joint declaration that will serve as a platform for their furture participation in any government that is formed following the December 11 general election.

Representatives of three of the four main Macedonian Albanian parties met Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama and Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati in Tirana on Thursday.