THE LEGAL noose around Slobodan Milosevic's neck tightened yesterday after Switzerland froze his financial assets at the request of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were sent offshore by Mr Milosevic's regime to avoid sanctions between 1992 and 1995, some of it ending up in Switzerland. Mr Milosevic's prime concern has always been power, not personal enrichment, so it is unclear whether the money in Switzerland was illicitly taken by him for his own family's benefit or if it was to be used to help his regime stay in power through patronage.

The Swiss police said they had also ordered a freeze on the assets of the four other Serbian war crimes suspects indictedwith President Milosevic last month: the Serbian President, Milan Milutinovic, the Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister, Nikola Sainovic, the armed forces chief of staff, Dragoljub Ojdanic, and the Serbian Interior Minister, Vlajko Stojiljkovic.

The Swiss order means that full details of property held in Switzerland by the suspects must be reported to the authorities in Berne and cannot be transferred out of the country. Louise Arbour, the prosecutor for the UN war crimes tribunal, asked Switzerland on 28 May for legal assistance in its prosecution of the Yugoslav leaders for alleged atrocities.

Nobody knows how much money the Milosevic family or its cronies has stashed away in secret accounts in Switzerland but it is believed to be substantial.

Mr Milosevic is closely allied to the Karic family, a powerful dynasty known as the Rockefellers of Serbia because of its wealthy international connections which they consolidated after the fall of Communism. Further reports, pages 13-15;

Robert Fisk, Review Front