Former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic arrived in The Hague Monday to face trial on charges of war crimes during the 1999 Kosovo conflict. The former ally of ousted Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic -- also on trial in The Hague for Balkans conflicts including Kosovo -- traveled to The Hague voluntarily, Yugoslav authorities said.

Airport sources in Belgrade said a government plane carrying Milutinovic, whose five-year term as president of Serbia ended late last month, left the Yugoslav capital in mid-morning after being delayed by several hours due to fog.

Milutinovic, 60, was indicted in 1999 along with former Yugoslav federal president Milosevic and three other former senior officials for atrocities against ethnic Muslim Albanians in Kosovo, the southern province of Serbia now under U.N. rule.

U.N. Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte planned to meet Milutinovic after his arrival, her spokeswoman said. She declined further comment amid speculation he could be called to testify against Milosevic.

SERB GUARANTEES

Prosecutors allege Milutinovic had at least formal control over Serb forces that killed hundreds of ethnic Albanians and expelled hundreds of thousands from their homes.

But Milutinovic has said he does not feel responsible for the crimes he has been charged with, arguing that as Serbian president he had little real power. Serbia is the dominant of the remaining two republics of Yugoslavia.

Milutinovic is expected to make his initial appearance before Hague judges later this week, when he will be invited to enter a plea to the charges against him.

Milutinovic planned to ask the court to release him provisionally before his trial begins, his lawyer John Livingston told Belgrade's B92 radio.

Livingston defended Bosnian Serb police reservist Dusan Tadic, whose sentence for the murder of seven Muslim civilians in Bosnia in 1992 was cut to 20 from 25 years during an appeal at the Hague tribunal in 2000.

Many others charged with war crimes following the bloody break-up of the former Yugoslavia remain at large, including two of the world's most wanted men -- wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic.

The United States has said Yugoslavia risks losing economic assistance after March 31 if it does not arrest suspects including Mladic, thought to spend much of his time in Serbia. Karadzic is believed to be hiding in remote eastern Bosnia.

PHOTO CAPTION

Serbian President Milan Milutinovic makes a point during a news conference in this March 18, 1999 file photo. (Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)