The United Nations (UN) war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands ruled on Thursday it will assign a defense lawyer to former Yugoslav president SlobodanMilosevic, reports reaching here said.

The ruling was made after medical tests showed Milosevic is tooill to continue defending himself.

"It is plain from the medical reports that the accused is not fit enough to defend himself," said presiding judge Patrick Robinson.

Milosevic opened his defense against the charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia on Tuesday.

The former Yugoslav iron man denounced the charges brought against him as "lies" and "distortions".

Milosevic's defense presentation will last three days and the UN court has arranged evidence-demonstration for his defense next week.

The case of the former Yugoslav president was originally set for May but has repeatedly been postponed as he has suffered from high blood pressure, flu and bouts of exhaustion since his trial opened at the UN tribunal in February 2002.

Source: Xinhua