Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is still ill and not expected to appear in court today on what was to have been the penultimate day of the prosecution case against him in his war crimes trial.
Milosevic, who has suffered from periodic bouts of high blood pressure, flu and exhaustion during a trial which opened two years ago, was to be examined by a doctor, a tribunal spokesman said.
It was not clear whether a brief administrative hearing would take place in Milosevic's absence.
The proceedings, regarded as Europe's most significant war crimes trial since Hitler's henchmen were tried at Nuremberg after World War Two, were to have reached a milestone tomorrow when prosecutors were due to finish their case at The Hague tribunal after calling more than 290 witnesses.
The former Yugoslav and Serb president, charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, is due to start his defence on May 19th. The trial could run until 2006 if he takes as long as the prosecution.
Milosevic, who described himself as a peacemaker in the Balkans and does not recognise the court, has dismissed the 66 counts facing him as politically motivated "lies" and declined to enter a plea. Not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf.
The 62-year-old former Serb dictator, who was examined by a cardiologist in 2002, refused to undergo a psychiatric examination ordered by judges just over a year ago to gauge the toll the trial was taking on his mental health.