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Mon 08 Aug 2001NATO chief checks Macedonia truce before missionNATO's top commander met alliance experts and Macedonian security chiefs in Skopje today to judge whether a ceasefire with guerrillas had improved enough to launch NATO's third Balkans mission since 1995.Supreme commander General Joseph Ralston did not tip his hand, mindful of internal NATO dissent over the viability of a plan to have alliance troops collect ethnic Albanian rebel arms.