Socialist Party Leaders Nano and Meta Agree on Compromise

TIRANA, April 8 (Reuters) - Factions in Albania's ruling Socialist Party agreed a compromise pact on Monday which observers said would put a lid on feuding among its leaders and dispel the spectre of early elections. A months-long power struggle between Socialist Chairman Fatos Nano and Ilir Meta had almost paralysed the work of the government and forced Meta to resign as premier in January. If the party had split, that would have forced early elections.

The party executive agreed a six-point compromise that supports the government of current premier Pandeli Majko and stipulates the Socialists will decide among themselves on a candidate for the presidency. The alternative would have been to present a consensual candidate in cooperation with the opposition. Analysts said the main point of the deal was that it showed Meta had dropped his long-standing objection to Nano becoming president, though Nano played down that point.

"I am sorry to have seen childish attempts to represent the pact as a bargain between Meta and myself for the post of the president," Nano told the executive meeting. Diplomats welcomed the deal as a sign that Albania was developing a more constructive political atmosphere that could help one of Europe's poorest countries push through long-delayed economic reforms.

In another development in that direction last week, the Socialists and the opposition Democratic Party agreed to create a bipartisan commission to achieve electoral reform as advised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.