``I know everything about Albania; we learned it all in school,'' said Bedri Krasniqi, 34, currently at the Brazda camp outside Skopje but aiming to go to Germany or France. ``And I know it is a very poor country, with lots of economic problems and not enough food,'' he added.

Ramada Azemi, also at Brazda, only had to recall a trip he once made to Albania -- ``from Durres to Shkoder'' -- to convince him that he doesn't want to revisit. ``I was discouraged,'' he said, ``my brothers there live in tough conditions."

For several days, the UN, NATO, and the Macedonian and Albanian governments have been holding talks about relocating some of the 2,05,000 Kosovars estimated to be in Macedonia.

The UNH-CR, which would oversee a transfer, insists that the transfers be strictly voluntary. Facilities already exist for5,000 to 6,000 people at Korca, three hours by bus from Skopje, where NATO troops are setting up camps that could accommodate 60,000 people.

But, as of Friday, the UNHCR had found a mere 600 refugees willing to make the move ``to join relatives living there'', UNHCR spokeswoman Paula Ghedini said. Nevertheless, the first batch is likely to set off in the coming days.

UNHCR staff in Macedonia acknowledges it will be tough to convince refugees to relocate to Albania. Not only does impoverished Albania offer ``no perspective for the future'', many refugees fear they will get stuck there, in conditions even worse than Macedonia's overcrowded camps, a diplomat said. ``They know that no humanitarian evacuation (mainly to western Europe, the United States and Canada) is organised in Albania, and that discourages them,'' said UNHCR staffer Monica Brulhart.

Undeterred, the UNHCR intends to hand out leaflets in the huge Cegrane camp, home to 35,000 in western Macedonia, explaining the possibilities for going toAlbania until it is safe to go back to Kosovo. A diplomatic source said Dennis McNamara, the UNHCR's special envoy for the former Yugoslavia, was trying in Tirana on Friday to get an agreement with Albanian authorities on future humanitarian evacuations to Third countries. ``It would be the only incentive'' to encourage the refugees in Macedonia to agree to move to Albania, the source said.

So far, Albania, which has 4,00,000 Kosovar refugees of it own, has refused to allow transfers to third countries, believing such action would only validate the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo.

Macedonia, which reckons that one in 12 inhabitants now is a refugee, takes the opposite stance. On Wednesday it closed its borders to asylum seekers to press western countries to accept more Kosovars.

This week, Macedonian Defense Minister Nikola Kljusev signalled a change of policy, saying: ``No one will be pushed out.''

But diplomats in Skopje believe Macedonia would be ready to speed up departures.