Slobodan Milosevic launched a fresh attack on his war crimes trial in an interview published on Friday, less than four weeks before he starts his own defence.
"You know this is a political trial," the former Yugoslav president told French newspaper Le Figaro, repeating allegations that the judges on the UnitedNations tribunal in The Hague are acting on the instructions of Western governments.
"He seemed more combative than ever," Le Figaro said of the interview, which it said was carried out on Tuesday in the prison where Milosevic is being held near The Hague.
Milosevic gave no indication that he would bow to demands by the prosecution for a lawyer to be appointed to take over his defence.
Milosevic, who is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, does not recognise the court and is conducting his own defence.
He is due to open his defence on Aug. 31 after judges pledged a review of proceedings that have been dogged by his ill health -- a heart condition, high blood pressure, bouts of flu and exhaustion -- since the trial began in February 2002.
Prosecutors have accused Milosevic of making political rather than legal points and want a defence lawyer imposed on him to avoid further trial delays due to his poor health.
Milosevic made no reference to his health in the interview, in which he railed against Western governments and media which he said had "demonised" him.
He reiterated he had nothing to do with the 1995 massacre of up to 8000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, saying the attack on the Bosnian town was "a huge strategic error by the Bosnian Serbs, with whom I was on very bad terms at the time".
Milosevic said he did not believe General Ratko Mladic had ordered the killings in Srebrenica.
Mladic led Bosnian Serb Army forces in the 1992-95 Bosnian war and has been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal on two counts of genocide. He remains at large.
