U.N. confident of Milosevic trial

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- United Nations chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte is confident that Slobodan Milosevic will face a war crimes tribunal in The Hague despite Yugoslav opposition.

She said on Thursday that she was disappointed at the result of talks with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica but was hopeful that other Belgrade officials would work with her.

"I am confident that Milosevic will be arrested and transferred to the Hague," Del Ponte said at the end of a three-day visit to Yugoslavia.

The Council of Europe's Secretary-General, Walter Schwimmer, said earlier that Yugoslavia would be denied membership in the organisation unless it co-operated fully with the criminal tribunal.

Senior Yugoslav government figures told Del Ponte that the former leader should be tried in Yugoslavia. But Del Ponte said the tribunal should deal with Milosevic, who has been indicted by the U.N. court on Kosovo war crimes charges, before any local trials on other charges.

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Of her meeting with Kostunica, Del Ponte said: "I was somewhat disappointed because I just had to listen for half an hour. I then tried to come to a dialogue but it was practically not possible."

Schwimmer told CNN that the Council of Europe would assist Yugoslavia if it co-operated.

"There will be some transition period. Yugoslavia can change its legislation and we will assist Yugoslavia in this difficult process, including changes to Yugoslavia's legislation to make it possible that Yugoslavia co-operates with the war crimes tribunal," he said.

But Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said most Serbs do not trust the Netherlands-based tribunal.

"I explained that the official position of the government was that a trial should take place on our territory," he said after meeting Del Ponte.

Even Serbian Prime Minister-designate Zoran Djindjic, one of Milosevic's fiercest rival in the last years of his leadership, suggested he would prefer to try him at home, although he urged "co-operation" with the tribunal.

"In a couple of months we should invite foreign institutions to assure themselves if our courts are independent and credible enough," Djindjic said, following talks with Del Ponte.


Many fear handing over Milosevic could destabilise the country

He admitted the prosecutor had been "not delighted" at the suggestion but called her expectations "unrealistic".

Kostunica himself said in an interview published on Wednesday that handing over Milosevic, who remains a free man and is still living in Belgrade, could destabilise Yugoslavia.

"If one wants to destabilise the situation in this country, one might behave the way Carla Del Ponte behaves," he was quoted as saying by the International Herald Tribune.

The tribunal believes that a total of 15 of the 27 suspects publicly indicted, but still free, remain at large in Serbia, the dominant republic in Yugoslavia's two-member federation.

While most people of Serbia have rallied behind the pro-democracy leadership which ousted Milosevic in October, feeling against the U.N. tribunal remains high with many Serbs considering it biased against them.

Reuters contributed to this report.