Supporters of Mr Slobodan Milosevic swore yesterday to fight tooth and nail to prevent the former Yugoslav president's extradition to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Mr Milosevic said from his Belgrade prison cell that the UN tribunal was an illegitimate institution, and that the Yugoslav constitution forbade the adoption of a law co-operating with the war-crimes court, his lawyer, Mr Toma Fila, said.
The Yugoslav government cleared the way for Mr Milosevic's extradition at the weekend when it passed a decree assuring co-operation with the tribunal. He would be the first former head of state to be brought before the court.
Western countries welcomed the decree.
Yesterday a few hundred die-hard supporters, who may at best succeed in delaying his extradition for a few days, gathered outside the central Belgrade prison, chanting his name and holding portraits.
The days when Mr Milosevic could bring hundreds of thousands on to the streets of the capital appear to be over. A protest rally has been called in the centre of Belgrade tomorrow afternoon.