Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on Thursday challenged a Serbian government decision to extradite Slobodan Milosevic, saying the former president's handover to the UN war crimes tribunal "cannot be qualified as constitutional."

"Besides all the problems we have been faced with... now we are faced with unnecessary problems which have been hastily created here," Kostunica said in a television address to the nation.

"Tonight's extradition of Slobodan Milosevic to the ICTY ... cannot be considered as legal and constitutional," Kostunica said.

Earlier Thursday, the Tanjug news agency reported that Kostunica was not informed of the decision to hand over Milosevic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

Kostunica, who defeated Milosevic in October elections, "found out about the event through the media," a source in his office told the agency.

Milosevic was flown to The Hague only hours after the Serbian government, anxious to obtain desperately needed donor aid at a conference Friday in Brussels, brushed aside a decision of Yugoslavia's top court to freeze the handover.

He stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

As Kostunica spoke to the nation Thursday evening, around 4,000 supporters of Milosevic, shouting "rebellion" and "betrayal," gathered in central Belgrade to protest the extradition.

The Yugoslav president said he addressed the people "in an extremely difficult, almost crucial moment for our country," noting that the Yugoslav Constitutional court had issued a ruling freezing a decree on cooperation with the UN court.

"If there had been a basic acceptance of the legal procedure, this measure should have been respected," Kostunica said, adding that the move could be understood as a "serious jeopardizing of the constitutional order of the country."

"The legal status of the country cannot be built on the injustice," Kostunica said.

However, Kostunica, a moderate nationalist and former lawyer, insisted that "now we must, with no hesitation but with cold heads, face the consequences of such moves and prevent the worst: that these moves seriously jeopardize the country, its citizens and already hurt peace in our region."

"I will do all that is in my power to prevent the worst and to preserve the unity of the state and the interests of its citizens," Kostunica said.

Kostunica said earlier this week that he had no authority as president to prevent or halt the measures contained in the decree, including the extradition.

Dusan Prorokovic, a high-ranking official in Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia, told radio B92 that the party members "were surprised and caught off guard by the hasty act of the republic's government."

Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said earlier Thursday that the emergency government session, after which Milosevic was handed over to the UN war crimes officials in Belgrade, had been attended by 15 of 23 ministers.

(Chinadaily.com.cn 06/29/2001)