Kostunica plea over Milosevic law

Milosevic has been indicted for war crimes

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has appealed to the Montenegrin government to reconsider its opposition to an extradition law.

The authorities in Belgrade have been working on a draft that would allow war crimes suspects, such as former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, to be extradited to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

But a series of talks between the federal government members from Serbia and their Montenegrin coalition partners have failed to produce an agreement.

Kostunica warned the future of Yugoslavia -- comprised of Serbia and Montenegro -- is at stake. The failure to reach an agreement on the law could spark a crisis, threatening the joint government -- and possibly even Yugoslavia as a state, he said.

Relations are already troubled,with other factions in Montenegro's leadership calling for the two republics to go their separate ways. The Montenegrin leaders in Kostunica's government, however, have been vital partners for Serbian politicians who want to preserve Yugoslavia.

Kostunica's office issued a statement on Monday asking the Montenegrins to reconsider "bearing in mind the highest national and state interests, primarily in regard to preserving the joint state."

Predrag Bulatovic, leader of the Montenegrin faction, responded on Tuesday, saying further talks on the law are "possible, but blackmail and ultimatums are not."

He said his party is "ready to support different options that guarantee the survival of the joint state ... including new federal elections."

Serbia has a population of nine million people and Montenegro just 600,000.

Montenegrin consent is crucial for the law to be passed in the federal parliament.

The stumbling block is Montenegro's insistence that each of the two republics should reserve the right to design their own clause when dealing with extradition of accused war criminals within an overall general model, local media reported.

The United States and its partners have tied further financial aid to cooperation with the U.N. tribunal. Failure to agree to a government compromise could jeopardise much-needed international financial aid.

The Hague's main target, Milosevic, is currently in a Belgrade jail, where he has been held since April 1, on a series of charges.

Serbian police recently announced they have widened their investigations to include accusations that Milosevic ordered the systematic destruction of evidence of Kosovo atrocities, including the 1999 dumping of a truck containing corpses into the Danube River.