Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic asked the U.N. judges overseeing his war crimes trial to be released for two years to prepare his defense.

But presiding judge Richard May said Tuesday "there can be no question" of such a long break in proceedings once prosecutors finish presenting their case at the end of this year. The judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal denied Milosevic's request to be released.

The former Serb leader has been on trial since February 2001 and is defending himself against 66 counts of war crimes allegedly committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

May said the three-judge panel will rule "in due course" on the number of witnesses Milosevic may call and how long he can prepare. He will be granted an equal number of trial days and witnesses as the prosecution, the judge said.

Prosecutors have called 230 witnesses so far and are in the final stage of presenting their case, dealing with allegations of genocide in Bosnia. Milosevic also faces allegations stemming from the Croatian and Kosovo wars.

On Tuesday, Milosevic insisted that "the most modest amount of time needed is two years" to prepare witnesses and gather evidence. He asked for "free and unsupervised access to sources and documents," similar to the powers of prosecutors.

Steven Kay, a so-called "friend of the court" appointed to ensure the proceedings against Milosevic are fair, said the defendant should be given "appropriate time" to prepare, but did not say how much.

The court was established in 1993 to prosecute war crimes during the breakup of Yugoslavia.

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