Milosevic begins his defence

Slobodan Milosevic has opened his defence against charges he masterminded a ruthless campaign of murder in the Balkans in his quest to create a "Greater Serbia".

He began by attacking the NATO bombing of Kosovo which forced his forces to abandon the drive against ethnic Albanians rebelling against his regime.

He showed a news video from 1999, building a case that Serbs were massacred in Kosovo and the NATO campaign was "a violation of international law in which innocent civilians lost their lives."

The western intervention in Kosovo was built on lies, according to the video. "Facts were turned upside down."

The video appeared to be a collage of old film clips compiled for the trial, drawing on footage from Serb and German television.

Milosevic declined to begin on Wednesday as time was running short, but demanded judges respond to his pretrial motions that the court is illegal and his extradition to The Hague was contrary to the Yugoslav constitution.

"I challenge the legality of this court because it is not established on the basis of law," he said.

"Your views about the tribunal are now completely irrelevant, as far as these proceedings are concerned," snapped Judge Richard May. The court had already rejected his motions, "as you would know if you had taken the trouble to read our decisions."