UN war crimes prosecutor Ms Carla Del Ponte today asserted that top Bosnian Serb fugitive Radovan Karadzic was living in Belgrade, drawing an immediate challenge from Serbs to "tell us the address".
If widely credited, her charge could wreck Serbia's efforts to prove it is cooperating as best it can with The Hague tribunal to capture the genocide suspect, an assurance on which depend continued US aid and vital access to international funds.
"I received just last week information from a credible source that even Karadzic is now in Belgrade," Ms Del Ponte told reporters in Brussels. "So Belgrade is now a safe haven for our fugitives... Karadzic is now residing in Belgrade."
Ms Del Ponte, a high-profile hate figure for many Serbs, named no source for the information and gave no details of the alleged whereabouts of the former Bosnian Serb wartime leader in Serbia's capital city of 1.6 million people.
The Interior Ministry said "Serbia does not have information which would confirm the claims of Ms Carla del Ponte."
Her allegation was likely to further jangle nerves in Serbia, where party leaders are trying to pick up the pieces from an inconclusive election six weeks ago and form a viable coalition.
One radio report said a new election would be set this week.
The ultra-nationalist Radical Party, whose voters consider the UN tribunal an anti-Serb conspiracy that must be defied, came top in the December 28th election but so far has been ostracised from government. Analysts say it may do even better in new poll.