North Macedonia's pro-Western leader Zoran Zaev is set to remain in power after long negotiations have now led to the framework for a coalition with the DUI, a party representing ethnic Albanians.

It could also see an Albanian lead the country for the first time - for 100 days at the end of Zaev's next term.

Zaev and Ali Ahmeti, head of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), told reporters in North Macedonia's capital Skopje they had agreed on the basis for a new government after complicated negotiations since the election results, over a month ago.

Zaev's Social Democrat party has 46 seats in parliament, which together with the DUI's 15 members and a single lawmaker from a smaller ethnic Albanian party, means that they would have a two-seat majority.

The coalition talks were made more difficult by DUI's insistence that an ethnic Albanian should be appointed prime minister for the first time in North Macedonia's history. It was a demand that was rejected during election campaigning by both the Social Democrats and the center-right VMRO-DPMNE party that came second in the 15 July vote.

Zaev said he would head the new government and the power-sharing deal foresees him handing the prime minister's office over to an ethnic Albanian politician proposed by DUI a 100 days before the next election.

Zaev stepped down as North Macedonia's prime minister in January and called an early election over the country's failure to secure the go-ahead for European Union accession talks.

North Macedonia's new government is expected to be approved by parliament by the end of the week.