US gives aid hope as Milosevic plays for time
The US is to attend an international conference on financial aid to Yugoslavia on Thursday after being encouraged by moves against former president Slobodan Milosevic.
The decision came after the Serbian Government took steps to extradite Milosevic to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
A State Department official said the US will make a significant pledge at the conference - but there would be conditions if Yugoslavia did not follow through on its promises to extradite Milosevic.
The administration had said it would not attend the conference in the absence of such co-operation.
Yugoslav deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus, who will head his country's delegation to the conference, welcomed the US decision.
"American participation guarantees the full success of the conference and is a boost for Yugoslavia's reformist and democratic forces," said Mr Labus.
In Belgrade, the former president's defence lawyers manoeuvred for time, filing a request that two Belgrade District Court judges and the prosecutor be dismissed from the case.
The extradition order and international war crimes indictment were to have been read to Milosevic in the presence of his defence team at the Central Prison in the capital.
But within minutes of the hearing, Milosevic's lawyers announced their request, which will buy them time until the Supreme Court in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, rules on their motion. A ruling must be made within 24 hours.
The court is likely to reject the motion and the hearing, intended to allow Milosevic to respond to the indictment and extradition order, would be rescheduled.
