Serbia's next justice minister, Vladan Batic, said Mr Milosevic would be held accountable for his misdeeds and that he saw no reason for his continued special treatment by police. Official results from last Saturday's poll for the Serbian parliament, in which democratic reformers defeated Mr Milosevic's Socialist Party, are to be released this week. But it is expected that legal challenges will delay the first meeting of the new parliament for at least a week. A Supreme Court ruling that the elections were not fair could force new elections, but observers widely regard the poll as the fairest in recent Serbian history. The 18-party reform coalition headed by President Vojislav Kostunica has already agreed to a broad outline of the new government, but it is still working out many details.
Democratic leaders say the new government is likely to take power in the middle of next month.
The new government is also thought likely to investigate fresh allegations that Mr Milosevic used fake documents to buy one of his houses in the Belgrade suburb of Dedinje, as reported on Monday by a Belgrade newspaper. The documents, signed in March last year just as NATO's bombing campaign began, are with the public prosecution office. An indictment for providing false information to a notary carries a prison sentence of between three and five years. Meanwhile, Yugoslavia's Supreme Defence Council has dismissed hardline army commanders in Montenegro at the insistence of President Milo Djukanovic. Mr Djukanovic, who is pushing for Montenegro to become an independent state, has complained that the Yugoslav army's presence in the republic is a threat to Montenegrins.