Slobodan Milosevic launched a defiant defense Tuesday of his conduct during the Balkan wars, accusing his enemies of conspiracies against the Serbs and insisting his countrymen acted in self-defense.

The former Yugoslav president sought to shift blame for atrocities and portray the U.N. war crimes tribunal as the tool of a U.S.-supported plot to bring about the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in fighting that left more than 200,000 people dead.

Seated alone at the defense table, Milosevic spoke with his customary swagger and sarcasm. But at times his face reddened as he rushed to complete his statement in the allotted time, leaving translators breathless as they tried to keep up with his rapid Serbian. Judges granted him an additional 90 minutes Wednesday to complete the statement.

"Accusations leveled against me are an unscrupulous lie and also a tireless distortion of history. Everything has been presented in a lopsided manner in order to protect those who are truly responsible," Milosevic asserted.

It was the first time he was allowed to speak without interruption since his trial began 2 1/2 years ago, and he signaled he would mount a highly political rather than legal defense.

He unleashed a stream of invective against those he held responsible for Serbia's torment: Croatia, which he accused of genocide against its Serb minority; the United States and Europe for allegedly seeking Yugoslavia's destruction; Islamic fundamentalists for supporting Muslim "terrorists" in Bosnia and Kosovo; and the Vatican, which he said sought the supremacy of Roman Catholicism in the Balkans over the Orthodox church.

"They call themselves the 'international community,' but in the territory of Yugoslavia Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo they supported a totalitarian chauvinist elite, terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, whose objective was an ethnically pure state. That is to say, a state without any Serbs," he said.

Milosevic, who was extradited to U.N. authorities in The Hague by Serbia in June 2001, faces 66 counts of war crimes allegedly committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during the 1990s. He could be jailed for life if convicted on any charge.

Source: Agencies