By Shaban Buza

DEBELDE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Macedonian security forces exchanged fire with ethnic Albanian guerrillas occupying a village on the border with Kosovo Monday after army chiefs consulted overnight with NATO (news - web sites) on how to flush out the guunmen.

A sporadic thump of shelling could be heard coming from the vicinity of the remote mountain hamlet, Tanusevci, which is overlooked by Macedonian security forces, after the two sides traded machinegun and small-arms fire.

Tanusevci itself was not visible from the nearby Kosovo village of Debelde, where U.S. peacekeeping soldiers set up a monitoring point after a firefight between the shadowy gunmen and Macedonian forces near Tanusevci a week ago.

But about a dozen armed men presumed to be ethnic Albanians could be seen taking up positions on a rock near Tanusevci. The fighters later told journalists to leave the center of Debelde.

The Macedonian government had no immediate comment. It had said earlier that any action taken against the guerrillas would be coordinated with the NATO-led KFOR peace force in Kosovo and aim only to safeguard Macedonia's territorial integrity.

Five U.S. armored combat vehicles, two armored medical vehicles and nine all-terrain Humvee jeeps arrived in Debelde on Monday morning, and two U.S. Apache helicopters were flying overhead observing the area.

Asked what was happening, one KFOR soldier told reporters: ''We'll tell you at three o'clock.''

A group of KFOR soldiers had earlier set off toward Tanusevci. When they returned, they said they had been talking to villagers, but did not make clear whether they had reached Tanusevci or spoken to the gunmen.

Civilians Flee Clashes

Most of the civilians from Tanusevci are believed to have fled after shooting broke out there Monday.

Macedonian generals held talks overnight with officers of KFOR to plan how to clear out the gunmen from Tanusevci after three Macedonian soldiers were killed there Sunday.

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NATO is worried that the gunmen, emboldened by the success of the armed struggle in Kosovo, might extend it into Macedonia, a fragile ex-Yugoslav republic that escaped recent Balkan wars.

Macedonia, a Slav-dominated country with a large ethnic Albanian minority, appealed for NATO's help over the emergence of the guerrillas about two weeks ago, saying they threatened its fragile demographic balance.

KFOR has a back-up mission in Macedonia but says its mandate is only to provide logistical help to the peacekeepers who replaced Serbian security forces in Kosovo after 11 weeks of NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia in 1999 conducted to stop Belgrade's repression of the province's Albanian majority.

The gunmen have not identified themselves or issued any demands. Ethnic Albanian politicians in Macedonia, where five government ministers are Albanian, say the clashes on the border threaten their hard-won political gains and the improvements achieved in their uneasy relations with the Slav majority.

Before Monday's clashes broke out, the spokesman for the Macedonian Defense Ministry said Macedonian forces would taken only defensive action.

``We are in our positions, ready to defend the lives of our soldiers and the integrity of our country. The army is prepared to take defensive action,'' Georgi Trendafilov said by telephone.

Sunday, Macedonia asked for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council to approve a three-mile buffer zone inside Kosovo on the border with Macedonia in which KFOR would strictly control any movement of people and supplies.