Milosevic claims he is victim of 'show trial'

Slobodan Milosevic's lawyers say he will tell the United Nations war crimes tribunal tomorrow that he's being put on show trial as a victim of Nato revenge because he refused to give up Kosovo.

Mr Milosevic, who was extradited to The Hague on Thursday, is due to appear before the tribunal for an initial hearing.

He is to be tried for his alleged involvement in atrocities in Kosovo during the crackdown he ordered in 1998 against the Serbian province's ethnic Albanian majority.

Mr Milosevic had been awaiting trial for alleged corruption and abuse of power in a Belgrade prison, and domestic investigations had recently widened to his alleged links to covering up Kosovo atrocities.

Although he was extradited before any domestic trial, his lawyers claim they had proven their client innocent and the same defence team would be representing him at The Hague proceedings.

Asked about their strategy, lawyer Branimir Gugl told Associated Press Television News: "We have not been working on the defence... Mr Milosevic does not recognise the tribunal."

Mr Gugl says his client continues to assert that his is "clearly a political trial, based on the fact that he is the only man who stood up against Nato".

Mr Milosevic's refusal to pull his forces out from Kosovo despite a Nato ultimatum provoked 78 days of bombing by the alliance, stopped only after he gave in and ordered his troops out of the province, permitting UN administrators and Nato-led peacekeepers in.

Reflecting on the trademark defiance Mr Milosevic has exhibited throughout his weeks-long battle to avoid extradition, Mr Gugl says the former president told his wife Mirjana Markovic during a phone conversation from The Hague that he has no regrets.

"He was working for the interests of the Serbian people as president and, if he were to be head of state again, he would act the same way. He is in fantastic psychological condition. He says he is not guilty of anything."