Milosevic clashes - "He'll be arrested" says minister

The Yugoslav and Serbian leaderships meanwhile went into crisis session to decide the next steps to take in detaining Milosevic, who remained holed up in his luxury residence with heavily-armed supporters keeping police at bay outside the compound.

Belgrade's B-92 radio said Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and chief of general staff Nebojsa Pavkovic were at the meeting, which followed a statement by Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic that Serbian police were determined to arrest Milosevic over two completed criminal indictments and a number of others pending.

Milosevic would not, however, be arrested for extradition to the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague, Mihajlovic stressed at a press conference following a night of violence in failed attempts to take the former strongman in.

The attempt was abandoned in the face of "aggressiveness and gunfire" coming from Milosevic's residence in a Belgrade suburb, Mihajlovic said, adding that two police suffered hand and arm bullet wounds.

The standoff between police commandos and an unknown number of Milosevic's private security guards continued through Saturday.

Mihajlovic said the arrest had become a serious problem when Yugoslav Army (VJ) officers securing the house "obstructed" the handover of Milosevic's security. He refused to general staff chief Pavkovic to the obstruction.

Meanwhile, the formally disbanded unit of bodyguards had shrunk from 54 to 17 men and, by Saturday morning, to just one, Mihajlovic said.

An unknown number of heavily armed men remained inside the residence complex, equipped with heavy machine guns, hand grenades and two rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Mihajlovic, who quoted Milosevic as saying that he would "not be taken to jail alive", said that the police would move in to make the arrest when experts decide it is possible.

"If he is sensible, he will come voluntarily ... otherwise, it will be by force," Mihajlovic said.

The minister said Milosevic was indicted in connection with two series of crimes about which sufficient evidence had been gathered, but other areas were also being investigated.

Prosecutors have charged the former president with abuses of authority with the goal of retaining power, which has cost the budget 1.8 billion dinars (2.7 million dollars).

A conspiracy to violate federal laws, punishable with at least five years in prison, also involves four other former top officials of Milosevic's regime.

One of the alleged co-conspirators, former secret police chief Rade Markovic, is already in investigative detention over multiple murder charges.

At Milosevic's villa, around 100 of his supporters broke through the police cordon sealing off the vicinity and managed to reach the ground gates late Saturday morning before they were pushed back.

(kil/dpa)