Macedonia's parliament will vote a motion to disband itself, the first time the issue is on the agenda in its 17 years of existence, Macedonian newspaper Utrinski Vestnik reported on April 10.

If parliament votes in favour of the motion, general elections will be held no earlier than June 10, according to the country's constitution. The motion to disband parliament was filed earlier this week by the main ethnic Albanian opposition party, the Democratic Union for Integration.

Several foreign politicians have tried to persuade Macedonia against the move. On April 9, the US ambassador to Nato Victoria Nuland urged the Macedonian government to focus on resolving its name row with Greece, the Macedonian newspaper reported.

Her words were echoed from Brussels by the vice-chairperson of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, who said that snap elections in Macedonia would be an unreasonable move, calling on Macedonian lawmakers to act rationally and try to find a solution to the discord within the ruling coalition.

Despite the calls from abroad, the country is likely to head for early elections. Emerging from a meeting with Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski, the leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians Menduh Thaci said his party would back a vote on snap elections. The party is part of the ruling coalition.

Meanwhile, Macedonian foreign minister Antonio Milososki said the senior partner in the coalition, VMRO-DPMNE, also wanted early elections.