Macedonian President Feared Dead

Searchers on foot were trying to find the wreckage of a plane carrying the president of Macedonia on his way to an international investment conference.

The Macedonian government aircraft, carrying President Boris Trajkovski and several other officials to the conference in the western Bosnian city of Mostar, crashed near the village of Bitonja shortly after 8 a.m. local time.

His party announced that he had died, but that was later changed to "missing" and presumed dead.

An aerial search was called off at nightfall. It was to resume at daybreak.

The village is 50 miles south of Sarajevo, in a mountainous area.

An AP photographer near the scene said five teams of de-mining experts were headed to the crash site, suggesting the plane may have gone down in an area littered with land mines left over from Bosnia's devastating 1992-95 war.

Rain, heavy cloud cover and thick fog in the area had prompted Albania's prime minister, Fatos Nano, to cancel his own flight to the conference. Nano sent his condolences to the Macedonian government for its "tragic and painful loss."

Macedonia was to formally submit its application for eventual membership in the European Union on Thursday in Ireland, but canceled the presentation and called its delegation back from Dublin, officials said.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, described Trajkovski as having "contributed hugely to reconciliation in Macedonia" and as a strong supporter of Macedonia's ambition to become an EU member.

"Today should have been one of celebration for him," Ahern said in a statement. "I have conveyed my deep sympathy to Prime Minister (Branko) Crvenkovski on behalf the European Union and the government and people of Ireland."

Trajkovski, 47, an ordained Methodist minister, studied theology in the United States, where he gave up communism and converted from Orthodox Christianity. He was elected president in November 1999. His powers were divided with those of Macedonia's prime minister.

He was widely respected in Macedonia for his neutral stance in the former Yugoslav republic, where tensions persist between Macedonians and the country's ethnic Albanian minority following a 2001 war. He had called for a great inclusion of ethnic Albanians in state bodies and institutions.

Croatian President Stipe Mesic, addressing the European Parliament, predicted Trajkovski's death will have "political consequences" for the region.

"Together with him and the presidents of other states, we worked on a program of stabilization and reconciliation in southeastern Europe," said Mesic, who was to have met Trajkovski at the conference in Moster later Thursday.

"Boris won't be with us today in Mostar but we shall, I am convinced, continue the work on which Boris worked too. This will be the best way to continue on our joint road," Mesic said."I believe that this accident will not affect the further procedures and the integration of the republic of Macedonia in the European Union."

Javier Solana, the EU's foreign and security affairs chief, called it "a very tragic day for Macedonia, for all the people of that country but also for many people in Europe."

"President Trajkovski was a great man, a man of passion, a man who moved his country forward, not only the reforms but also to get it as close as possible to Europe," Solana said in a statement.

"I was his friend. I was with him in very difficult moments. It is going to be very difficult for the people of Macedonia to fill that gap," he said.

Trajkovski has a wife, son and daughter. Before assuming the presidency, he served as a deputy foreign minister in the center-right government of former Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski.