Milosevic, who is acting as his own lawyer, told the court that he needed more than the 150 days allotted to him to cross-examine more than 1,600 witnesses whom he has said he intends to call to the stand.

Rejecting the prosecution's claim that he masterminded the bloody wars that tore apart the Yugoslav federation in the early 1990s, he said in his opening defence statement that the international community was "the main force for the destruction" of the country.

He also blamed "the Nato pact" for the conflict in Kosovo, a province of his native Serbia, where more than 10,000 people died and about 800,000 ethnic Albanians -- one-third of the population -- were expelled in 1988 and 1999.

Milosevic faces a total of 60 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the 1991-95 war in Croatia, the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and the Kosovo campaign.