Captives may be trade bait for Yugoslavia: Canadian, U.K. prisoners could be swapped for jailed war crime suspects, sources say.

Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president, is considering using the two British policemen and two Canadian builders arrested for alleged spying in Montenegro as bargaining chips to secure the release of Serb suspects held at the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

Diplomats have branded the idea preposterous, but western diplomatic sources confirmed Milosevic had the scheme proposed to him by ``countries loyal to Yugoslavia,'' a phrase usually referring to Russia, Belarus and China.

The BBC reported Sunday that the four men had been transferred from a military facility in Andrijevica, Montenegro to the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica.

``We are aware of the reports and we're looking into it,'' said Ian Trites, spokesman for Canada's department of foreign affairs.

``At this point we have not been notified of such a transfer and we cannot confirm that.''

Trites said Craig Bale, the Canadian charge d'affaires at the Canadian embassy in Belgrade, has been instructed to contact Yugoslav officials to try to verify the news reports.

Bale was turned away by Yugoslav authorities when he tried Friday to see the two Albertan prisoners, who are accused of training Montenegrin soldiers in terrorist operations. The Canadian foreign affairs department said Sunday it was not expecting to get access to the men until Monday at the earliest.

Diplomatic sources warned that even in the best circumstances, the release of Adrian Prangnell, 41, a detective sergeant, and John Yore, 31, a constable, was likely to be several weeks away and very probably after the elections on Sept. 24, which could keep Milosevic in power for another four years.

Officials in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which employs the police officers at one of its Kosovo training schools, said they were furious with the pair, who did not have permission to travel to neighbouring Montenegro when they were detained by the Yugoslav army.

Although nobody in the OSCE, the United Nations or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has suggested the men were doing anything illegal, most officials agreed the group had handed Milosevic a publicity coup.

The family of two Albertans arrested in Yugoslavia on espionage charges has issued a desperate plea to hear from anyone who has seen Shaun Going and Liam Hall alive, as conflicting reports of their whereabouts circulate.

Britain's BBC reported Sunday that the two Albertans and two Britons arrested Tuesday had been transferred from a military facility in Andrijevica, Montenegro, to the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica.

However, Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported that despite other rumours in Podgorica that the four had been secretly airlifted to Belgrade, police sources said the four were still being held at the barracks in Andrijevica, in the mountainous east of the coun-try.

``We would really like to hear that someone has been able to make contact with them and that we hear directly from someone who has seen them,'' said Shaun Going's mother, Anne.

Going, 45, his nephew, Hall, 19, and Britons John Yore, 31 and Adrian Prangnell, 41, were arrested near the Montenegro-Kosovo border.

``We are aware of the reports and we're looking into it,'' said Ian Trites, spokesperson for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs. ``At this point, we have not been notified of such a transfer and we cannot confirm that.''

Trites said Craig Bale, the Canadian charge d'affaires at the Canadian embassy in Belgrade, has been instructed to contact Yugoslav officials this morning to try to verify the news reports.

Bale was turned away by Yugoslav authorities when he tried Friday to see the two Albertan prisoners, who are accused of training Montenegrin soldiers in terrorist operations.

Trites said there has been no contact with Yugoslav ambassador to Canada Pavle Todorovic since Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy summoned Todorovic Friday to demand consular access to Going and Hall under the Vienna Convention.

In Wetaskiwin, the Going family anxiously awaits any news.

``We've heard absolutely nothing. We were told not to expect anything to happen further until (today),'' Anne Going said. ``Obviously we're very concerned about their well-being.''

A childhood friend of Hall's says the Western Canada High School grad has the inner strength to make it through the crisis.

``Anything he can, he'll do to pull through it,'' said Jory Kinjo, 21. ``He'll pull through it OK if we can get him back safe. It's a lot to deal with for someone who's 19. He's strong. He's just an average kid growing up in Canada. This is the last thing you expect to face.

``It's like something out of a movie. Liam just went over there to try and make some money for the summer.''

Kinjo said Liam's father, Ron, has been in contact with the Canadian ambassador in Belgrade to try and gain access to his son who was due to return next week.

``His family's doing well,'' Kinjo said.

Analysts say the arrests signal that yet another crisis which could lead to war is brewing in the Balkans barely a year after the end of the Kosovo conflict.

The theory is that the detentions are linked to an effort by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to befuddle western leaders and to bully the recalcitrant government of Montenegro, a junior partner in the Yugoslav federation now careening towards independence.

``These arrests are a message to Montenegro and the West,'' said Balkan analyst Adam Lebor, author of A Heart Turned East, a history of Islam in Europe.

``It's a shot across Montenegro's bow.''

He says the Serbs, who dominate the Yugoslav federation, ``are telling the Montenegrins that they control this republic, and that the Yugoslav army alone is calling the shots by restricting the freedom of movement of anyone there.''

Until recently, the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro had successfully defied the Milosevic regime in Belgrade and mapped its own liberal pro-western course by forging diplomatic ties with the U.S. and western Europe, implementing economic reform, and opening its borders to tourists.

But with federal elections scheduled for Sept. 24 and tensions between Serbia and Montenegro escalating, the arrests of the Canadians could be the first shots of a new offensive by the Milosevic regime to undermine its political opponents in Serbia and overthrow the Montenegrin government.

Fears of a bloody coup in Montenegro appear to be growing both in and outside of Yugoslavia.

``Everyone is worried about a new war,'' said Jovan Lukic, a 30-year-old resident of Novi Sad in northern Serbia. ``The thing is the people of Serbia are so exhausted and brain- washed they wouldn't do anything to stop it. The psychology of the people has been warped. Most Serbs still support Milosevic.''

With about 15,000 Yugoslav army troops and 1,000 men of the seventh military police battalion now garrisoned in Montenegro, Milosevic appears to be arming himself for a stand against Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic.

Milosevic may be forced to play the military card given Montenegro's refusal to participate in the Sept. 24 elections, and Djukanovic's plans to hold a referendum on Montenegrin independence.

But some analysts maintain an overt move against Montenegro is unlikely because of Djukanovic's 15,000-strong republican police force.

``Milosevic is not likely to move against Montenegro directly,'' says Lebor.

``In Yugoslavia's past wars against Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, the Serbs have fought against a poorly armed civilian population.

``Montenegro is the only republic they've opposed that has a credible armed forces. The Serbs know a war with Montenegro wouldn't be like past conflicts where they get resistance from a few cops with pistols.

``The Montenegrin police would fight hard.''

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Aug 7 (AFP) - The international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, MSF) said Monday that it was pulling out of north Kosovo to protest the UN's failure to protect ethnic minorities.

"More than a year after UNMIK and KFOR assumed responsibility for civil and military administration, a large number of people still live in extreme insecurity," MSF said in a statement issued jointly in Pristina and Brussels.

UNMIK -- the UN administrative mission in Kosovo -- is led by Bernard Kouchner, a co-founder of MSF. KFOR is the NATO-led peacekeeping force in the province.

"Ethnic groups are continually terrorised. There are acts of organised violence against them ... that amounts to ethnic cleansing," said the head of the MSF mission in north Kosovo, Philippe Rosen.

"We refuse to be accomplices to what is happening. We refuse to remain silent faced with the lack of efficient action on behalf of the international community," he added.

The Belgian staff of MSF's operations in north Kosovo will pull out of the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica as well as the Serbian enclaves around the towns of Srbica and Vucitrn.

The organisation's Spanish and French staff in the rest of the province will continue their work.

MSF, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, deployed 190 expatriate staff from 16 countries in Kosovo after the province was put under UN administration in June last year.

It had already been active in Kosovo for six years, before NATO's 78-day campaign of aerial bombardments of Yugoslavia forced Serbia to relinquish control of the predominantly ethnic Albanian province.

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Aug 7 (AFP) - A member of the ethnic-Albanian moderate Kosovo Democratic League (LDK) narrowly escaped injury when he was attacked by gunmen, a UN police spokesman said Monday.

In the latest in a wave of attacks in the UN-administered province, Mehmet Gerkinaj, an LDK chief near the northwestern town of Srbica, was attacked outside his home late Sunday by unidentified gunmen, spokesman Andriej Stepien told AFP.

The supporter of moderate leader Ibrahim Rugova escaped the attack with no injuries, police said and an enquiry has begun.

A wave of political violence appears to be sweeping Kosovo in the run-up to October municipal elections, and LDK members have been its most frequent victims.

On Saturday another senior member of the LDK -- Kosovo's leading ethnic Albanian political party -- was found dead 10 days after his family reported him kidnapped.

On Wednesday last week, unidentified gunmen shot and injured Sejdi Koci, the leader of the LDK in Srbica, also in northwest Kosovo.

This attack followed a similar shooting the day before which left Agim Veliu, LDK leader in Podujevo, northeast Kosovo, slightly injured.

In reaction to the wave of violence, Kosovo's UN administration announced Thursday it was creating a cell of UN officials, police investigators, peacekeeping troops and OSCE election monitors to examine the problem of political violence.

The KFOR multinational peacekeeping force also announced last week that it hoped to send an additional 2,000 troops to Kosovo to oversee security in the run-up to the poll.

October's elections will be the first fully democratic poll ever held in Kosovo. Voters will choose local administrations in the province's 30 municipality.

Polls conducted by the OSCE in the province earlier this year suggested that the LDK will come out well ahead in voting, with their nearest rivals likely to be the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) of Hashim Thaci, the former political leader of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 7, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Wards lie empty and nurses leave an hour before the end of their shifts in the only hospital in Kosovo that will treat Serbs.

"We've got far more doctors than we need in this public hospital. We've had to take on internally displaced people because of pressure from Belgrade who are desperate to keep Serbs in Kosovo," explains Doctor Mirlan Ivanovic, deputy director of Mitrovica Hospital.

"We've got to take them on even if we don't need them," admits Cveta Jaksic, head of nursing, who is no longer even frustrated by the sight of nurses knocking off for the weekend at Friday lunchtime.

The number of patients has dropped by half in the last year, while numbers of hospital staff have risen by a third.

Doctor Ivanovic says that from 700 staff before Kosovo's 1998-1999 civil war, there are now a thousand doctors, nurses, care assistants and technicians working in the hospital where half the beds remain unoccupied.

The corridors are deserted, many of the wards lie empty, and in the waiting-rooms the nurses lounge around for up to an hour at a time smoking and drinking endless cups of Turkish coffee, quietly despairing of the hospital's hygiene, where, they say not a single day goes by without a power cut or the water being cut off.

"More than 100,000 workers in the health sector have been driven out of Kosovo," says Ivanovic, seated in his office beneath a portrait of the Yugoslav Republic's President Slobodan Milosevic. Next to the portrait is pinned up a copy of the Hippocratic Oath in Serbian.

Between June and September 1999, in an effort to keep Serbs in Kosovo, Milosevic prevented Serb medical personnel from Kosovo from being employed in the rest of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

"For the first few months, we were basically on forced holiday," explains Sinisa Milic, a 33-year-old female anesthetist, who a year ago had to leave the Kosovan capital, Pristina, for Nis, in Serbia.

"I fled to Serbia after the war but I just couldn't find work because of the regulations being laid down by Belgrade," adds Doctor Srdjan Ivkovic, 36, who before the war worked in Kosovo at the spa in the town of Glogovac.

"I can't complain," he says, "I earn twice what my colleagues in Serbia earn, about
6,000 dinars (541 dollars)."

"By keeping the Serbs in Mitrovica, we're hoping to get them back to Pristina as soon as possible," says Radoslav Orlovic, who's been director of the hospital for 12 years.

"Everybody here is living for the day when they can be citizens of Pristina again," echoes Tanja Popovic, formerly a doctor in Pristina.

"Pristina is a little bit like Jerusalem for the Israelis," she says.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, Aug 7 (AFP) - A Yugoslav military prosecutor is to decide Tuesday whether to charge two Britons and two Canadians arrested in Montenegro last week, a lawyer defending the four told AFP.

Vojislav Zecevic said Monday that the prosecutor of the Podgorica military court was to make a decision on the fate of the four by 6:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) Tuesday.

The four men -- two British police officers working for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and two Canadian businessmen -- were detained last week in Montenegro after they entered the republic from Kosovo, where they were based.

Having crossed from UN-administered Kosovo without the required visa, they were accused of spying, plotting against the government and training special police in the Yugoslavia's independence-minded republic of Montenegro.

After a military court hearing over the weekend in Pogorica they were returned to detention in an undisclosed location, the lawyer said.

"The four have had no objections to the treatment they have received," Zecevic explained.

"They are especially pleased with the treatment they have had before the military court," he added.

However a military court source, who requested not to be identified, said it was likely the investigation would be taken over by "higher-level military organs", since their alleged crime "exceeds the jurisdiction of Podgorica's basic military court".

The detention of the men last Tuesday sparked an international row. Britain and Canada, backed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, have insisted that the men be released or officially charged.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, Aug 7 (AFP) - Two Britons and two Canadians detained last week by the Yugoslav army in Montenegro appeared at the weekend before a military investigative judge in Podgorica, a Yugoslav army source said Monday.

The four, whom Belgrade has accused of spying but has not yet charged, were heard in the presence of their lawyers, the source, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The source said that it was likely the investigation would be taken over by "higher-level military organs", since their alleged crime "exceeds the jurisdiction of Podgorica's basic military court."

However, the source failed to precise where the four were being held and whether they had been transferred to the Montenegrin capital, as the BBC reported late Sunday, quoting a military source.

The two British police officers and two Canadians were previously believed to have been held in the town of Andrijevica, some 30 miles (50 kilometres) northeast of the capital.

The BBC cited the unidentified military source as saying the four were being treated well and were still being questioned by intelligence officers sent from Belgrade.

The detention of the men last Tuesday sparked an international row. Britain and Canada, backed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, have insisted that the men be released or officially charged.

DOBROSIN, Aug 7, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A senior member of Kosovo's leading ethnic Albanian political party has been found dead 10 days after his family reported him kidnapped, an UN police spokesman said Sunday.

The body of Shaban Manaj, a member of Ibrahim Rugova's Kosovo Democratic League (LDK), was found on Saturday in the village of Ozrim, nine miles (15 kilometers) from his home in Istok, northwest Kosovo, Stepien Andriej told AFP.

Police have opened a murder investigation, UN spokeswoman Claire Trevena said.

"The body was found in a deserted part of the village and had been burned. Forensic teams are examining it today," she added.

A wave of political violence appears to be sweeping Kosovo in the run-up to October municipal elections, and LDK members have been its most frequent victims.

On Wednesday last week, unidentified gunmen shot and injured Sejdi Koci, the leader of the LDK in Srbica, also in northwest Kosovo. This attack followed a similar shooting the day before which left Agim Veliu, LDK leader in Podujevo, northeast Kosovo, slightly injured.

Following the latest attacks, Kosovo's UN administration on Thursday announced it was to set up a cell of UN officials, police investigators, peacekeeping troops and OSCE election monitors to examine the problem of political violence.

The KFOR multinational peacekeeping force also announced last week that it hoped to send an additional 2,000 troops to Kosovo to oversee security in the run-up to the poll.

October's elections will be the first fully democratic poll ever held in Kosovo. Voters will choose local administrations in the province's 30 municipality.

Polls conducted by the OSCE in the province earlier this year suggested that the LDK will come out well ahead in voting, with their nearest rivals likely to be the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) of Hashim Thaci, the former political leader of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army.

BELGRADE, Aug 7 (AFP) - Serbia's main opposition parties Monday officially named Democratic Party of Serbia leader Vojislav Kostunica as their candidate for the September 24 Yugoslav presidential poll, an opposition leader said.

"It is my pleasure to announce that the democratic opposition has unanimously set Vojislav Kostunica as (joint) presidential candidate," Dusan Mihajlovic of the New Democracy party told reporters after a meeting of opposition leaders.

The choice of Kostunica consolidates a split in Serbia's opposition, after Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement on Sunday put forward Belgrade mayor Vojislav Mihailovic as its candidate to unseat Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

"I can hardly hide a feeling of satisfaction and responsibility," Kostunica said after being nominated.

"This moment is politically catastrophic for (President Slobodan) Milosevic," he added.

PRISTINA, YUGOSLAVIA - AP World News via NewsEdge Corporation : A newspaper banned for violating U.N. regulations is back on newsstands, and international officials said Friday the daily is being published illegally.

``Dita is out illegally,'' said Roland Bless, spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

But Bless said the organization would take further action when the office of temporary media commissioner was filled. The U.N. administrator of Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, is to appoint a new commissioner.

The former media commissioner, whose job entails overseeing the media, left his position last week after his contract came to an end. A replacement has yet to be named.

The OSCE fined Dita 25,000 German marks (dlrs 11,900) for repeatedly violating a U.N. regulation that prohibits printing accusations against individuals who have not been charged with war crimes, or publishing other information that could make them targets of retribution.

The paper was shut down July 28 after failing to pay the fine.

Kosovo journalists stood behind Dita, accusing the international community of infringing on press freedoms.

According to Dita's publisher, Belul Beqaj, the newspaper made a defiant reappearance Tuesday, even though the fine was not paid.

In June, Dita published an article accusing a Kosovo Serb of being a war criminal. Two weeks later, the man was found stabbed to death and the paper was shut down for eight days.

The killing led the OSCE to draw up a code of conduct for media, allowing a variety of penalties to be imposed if the code is violated. Penalties range from requiring the publication of a reply, correction or apology, to a fine of up to 100,000 German marks (dlrs 48,000), to shutting down the offending media organization.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Two Britons and two Canadians suspected of spying have been moved to a military prison in Montenegro, and the military prosecutor was expected to formally charge them Monday, a senior army official said.

The four men _ two British policemen and two Canadians _ were arrested on Tuesday in northern Montenegro while driving back to Kosovo. The two Britons, John Yore and Adrian Prandnel, were working as instructors at the OSCE-run police academy in Kosovo.

Shaun Going, one of the Canadians arrested along with his nephew Liam Hall, was a contractor doing reconstruction work in the province.

No diplomats have been able to contact the men, detained on espionage charges.

A military helicopter transferred the four from the army camp in Andrijevica, close to the place of arrest, to Podgorica over the weekend, said the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The same source added that the army prosecutor will raise charges against the four later Monday. Their trial will likely be held in Belgrade, he added.

Late Sunday, Montenegrin attorney Vojislav Zecevic, speaking on local television, said he had communicated with his four clients, who told him ``they were well and treated correctly.''

The lawyer said that Yugoslav authorities completed the investigation phase of the case, and under military law now have 48 hours to charge or release them. He said the men were in good spirits and the two Britons had asked him to ring their families back home, saying they should not worry.

The Yugoslav army claimed the detainees were suspected of training pro-Western forces in Montenegro for ``terrorist actions.'' The four had military equipment and explosives in their possession at the time of arrest, an army statement claimed.

Serbian authorities, who are at odds with the pro-Western Montenegrin government, have recently alleged that special British forces, the SAS, and other foreign experts were training Montenegrin police in preparation for its secession from Yugoslavia.

By World Affairs Editor John Simpson

Campaigning has begun for next month's presidential election in Serbia. Anywhere else the government would be preparing to fight on its record. President Slobodan Milosevic is using different tactics; he is arresting foreigners.

The two British police instructors and two Canadians who were picked up while taking a holiday in Montenegro are Mr Milosevic's equivalent of an election manifesto.

Rather like President Mugabe in Zimbabwe last June, he is basing his campaign on the notion that the outside world is trying to undermine the country and wants to destroy its government. It did not work in Zimbabwe: the election there was a remarkable moral victory for the opposition. But the opposition in Serbia is, as ever, divided and confused. Mr Milosevic's tactics seem likely to work when the election is held on 24 September.

Serbia is two completely different countries, and Mr Milosevic presides unchallenged over one of them.

Bargaining tool

The educated, Western-oriented people of the main towns and cities are longing for something different; but in the rural fastnesses of the country, where the clock stopped somewhere in the 1950s and only the government's version of things circulates, Mr Milosevic rules secure.

So when his television service parades foreign prisoners on its main news programme and displays the banknotes (Deutschmarks, the accepted currency in Montenegro where the men were arrested) and maps of the area which were found with them, more than half the audience are likely to believe that their government has succeeded in protecting them from Nato's evil intentions.

These unfortunate tourists will be useful in next month's election

Fewer and fewer independent voices in the opposition media are left to point out that if anyone really were planning to kidnap President Milosevic they would surely come from Nato's special forces. A couple of British bobbies and two Canadians do not fit the profile quite so well.

Their lives should be perfectly safe. Serbia may have become an international outlaw, but it bears no other resemblance to, say, its new ally Iraq. No doubt President Milosevic plans to release the men at some stage; either to improve the atmosphere or as part of some eventual settlement.

It has even been suggested that he might offer to exchange them for Bosnian Serb war criminals held at The Hague. But for now these unfortunate tourists will be useful in next month's election.

It will be fought on the basis that Nato hopes to overthrow the Yugoslav state, and that only Mr Milosevic can prevent its happening. Foreigners will be cast in the role that President Mugabe reserved for white farmers in the Zimbabwean election.

The difference is that there was a real, and impressive, opposition in Zimbabwe. President Milosevic has no such problem

The Yugoslav army says it will charge two Britons and two Canadians with terrorism following their arrest in Montenegro last week.

An army spokesman told Reuters news agency that the military prosecutor would probably press charges against the four later on Monday.

The men have been transferred to a military camp in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, from an army barracks near the border with Kosovo.

A Montenegrin news agency said that the four men will have the opportunity to use all legal means of defence.

The four men were arrested on Tuesday in northern Montenegro while driving back to Kosovo, where they were working in the international aid effort.

Electric cables, maps and photographs of explosions were allegedly found in their car, and they were accused of espionage.

The claim has been strenuously denied by the United Nations and the European security organisation, the OSCE . Both organisations have demanded the men's release.

Vojislav Zecevic, a lawyer appointed to defend the men, told Montenegrin television on Sunday that he had learned the detainees were being properly treated and advised their families not to worry about them.

Two of the men are British policemen: Adrian Pragnell, from Hampshire, and John Yore from Cambridgeshire.

They were arrested in Montenegro while taking a break from training police recruits in Kosovo.

They were travelling with Canadian mining engineer Shaun Going and his nephew Liam Hall.

The British honorary consul in Podgorica, Dragan Vukdelic, said the Yugoslav army had yet to respond to requests from Britain and Canada for access to the detainees.

Representatives from the UK Foreign Office and the OSCE were scheduled to meet Yugoslav Foreign Ministry officials on Monday to ask for more information about the detainees

Serb opposition formally picks Kostunica to challenge Milosevic

Belgrade (dpa) - Serbia's main opposition alliance on Monday formally nominated Vojislav Kostunica, head of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), to fight President Slobodan Milosevic in next month's Yugoslavian presidential elections.

Kostunica has the backing of all the mainstream opposition parities with the exception of Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), which Sunday picked Belgrade Mayor Vojislav Mihajlovic to run against Milosevic.

Kostunica, 56, is a former university professor who in 1989 helped form what today is the Democratic Party led by Zoran Djindjic.

Djindjic said the opposition would begin on Tuesday with its campaign for September 24 election.

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The Yugoslav army said on Monday it would press terrorism charges against two Canadians and two Britons arrested in Montenegro last week.

``A criminal case will be launched against two British officers and two Canadians arrested by the Yugoslav army...since the investigation so far confirmed they committed the criminal act of terrorism,'' a Yugoslav army spokesman said by telephone.

The spokesman said the military prosecutor would probably press charges later on Monday against the four, who had been transferred to Podgorica from an army barracks near the boundary with Kosovo, where they were arrested on Tuesday night.

A source close to the army said the trial would take place at the military court in Belgrade.

Vojislav Zecevic, appointed to defend the men, told Montenegrin television on Sunday evening that he had been in contact with the detainees and learned that they were being treated properly. He advised their families not to worry.

The British honorary consul in Podgorica, Dragan Vukdelic, said the army had yet to respond to requests sent on Friday from Britain and Canada for access to the men, who Western officials say are innocent men on a weekend break from jobs in Kosovo.

Dutch officials are also seeking access to four of their nationals arrested some three weeks ago in Serbia and accused of plotting to kidnap Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

A military spokesman in Montenegro earlier alleged the Canadians and British were war criminals.

``They are terrorists, they are war criminals and they will be judged by a military court,'' said the official who declined to be named.

The description of the case did not mention war crimes charges, a sensitive subject in Yugoslavia, whose president, Slobodan Milosevic, was indicted last year by a U.N. war crimes tribunal over the repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

NO YUGOSLAV VISAS

Britain has said its nationals, Adrian Prangnell and John Yore, are policemen helping to train a new police force in Kosovo. They were travelling with Canadian Shaun Going, who also worked in Kosovo, and his nephew Liam Hall.

Like many Westerners visiting Montenegro, a coastal republic which has asserted its autonomy from Milosevic's government in Belgrade, the Canadians and Britons did not have Yugoslav visas.

Although a part of federal Yugoslavia and with Yugoslav troops on its territory, Montenegro has a pro-Western government and its Adriatic coast has been a popular destination for off-duty members of the large foreign community in Kosovo.

Robert Gordon, who heads the British interests section of the Brazilian embassy in Belgrade, said consular access should be granted under international law.

Yugoslavia broke off formal diplomatic ties with Britain in 1999 when NATO bombed Yugoslavia to force its troops to withdraw from the mainly ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo. The province has since been a de facto international protectorate.

The army showed pictures of the men on state television on Thursday, saying they had military and demolition equipment with them and appeared to be specialists in sabotage.

A colleague of Going's said he owned a construction contracting firm involved in quarrying, which was why he might have been carrying wire for demolition work and pictures of explosions.

UK summons Yugoslav diplomat over arrested Britons

LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - British Foreign Office minister Keith Vaz said on Monday he was summoning the Yugoslav representative in London to demand an explanation for the detention of two Britons arrested last week.

The Yugoslav army said on Monday it would press terrorism charges against the Britons and two Canadians detained with them in Montenegro last Tuesday.

But Vaz said Britain had not been officially informed of the charges, or even been formally notified of their detention. He said the two Britons had been in Montenegro on holiday.

``I shall be calling the head of the Yugoslav interests section again to see me in London to get a full explanation,'' Vaz told BBC radio.

``It's extremely important that the (Yugoslav) regime understands that we take this issue very seriously indeed.''

``At the moment we are being denied what any other country would be giving the British government at this moment -- simple basic information, and we will continue to press this,'' he said.

Serb Party Chooses Rival Anti-Milosevic Candidate

BELGRADE, Aug 7, 2000 -- (Reuters) Serbia's largest opposition party on Sunday put forward Belgrade's mayor for presidential election in September, risking a split in the vote against Slobodan Milosevic.

"Yes, I am a presidential candidate," Vojislav Mihajlovic told reporters after a meeting of party leaders, adding that he hoped the rest of the opposition, which has joined forces behind a different candidate, would back him.

"This gives us a real opportunity to fight Slobodan Milosevic, who is still holding a tight grip on power, and win the coming elections," he said.

Mihajlovic was chosen by Vuk Draskovic, leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, over the protests of 15 other opposition leaders, who say the 49-year-old city boss has no chance of ending Milosevic's 10 turbulent years in power.

The others have joined forces to back the nationalist leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, saying he gives them the best chance of beating Milosevic, who they blame for Yugoslavia's international isolation and economic crisis.

One of the 15 leaders said on hearing of the Serbian Renewal Movement's decision that it was damaging, but not fatal for their chances.

"It is bad news for us," said Zarko Korac, leader of the opposition Socialdemocratic Union, adding that Mihajlovic was not a good candidate and could not expect their support.

"We don't see him as a winner for two reasons: he's not so well known to the public and there's a problem with the local government in Belgrade," Korac told Reuters, referring to public criticism of the running of municipal services in the capital.

DRASKOVIC ATTACKS OPPOSITION RIVAL

Draskovic, a controversial figure accused by other opposition leaders of helping Milosevic behind the scenes, presaged his party's decision on Saturday when he praised Mihajlovic and launched a bitter attack on Kostunica.

"Mihajlovic is a man who as president would bring us peace, the rule of law and cooperation with the world," said Draskovic, who had earlier told an opposition rival he had proposed the bearded, low-key mayor because he was good-looking.

In an interview with independent radio B2-92, he called Kostunica a man "who frightens many citizens of Serbia, as his policies are in fact the same as those of Slobodan Milosevic".

Kostunica, chosen by the other parties because his nationalism reflects popular opinion in Serbia, had said he would not run without support from the Serbian Renewal Movement and Yugoslavia's smaller republic Montenegro.

Montenegro has already said it will boycott the vote, but Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic said he thought Kostunica would run nevertheless.

"Mr Kostunica will run, I think," he told Reuters, adding that the parties would formalise their decision on Monday.

Before that, they will meet people from Draskovic's party to decide whether to compete together in local elections, also due on September 24. If they don't they could lose the little power they hold through their leadership of towns to Milosevic.

Djindjic said the chances of agreement were slim, since Draskovic's party wanted too many places on candidate lists.

The other opposition parties believe that Draskovic, who joined the government briefly last year, has lost popularity recently and that together they are stronger than his party.