THE HAGUE, Netherlands - In a four-hour verbal battle yesterday, Slobodan Milosevic dismissed the first witness in his war crimes trial as a liar and defended Serb police actions in Kosovo as a fight against terrorism.

Associated Press Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic responds to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, in this image made from television, Thursday. Launching his defense against war crimes charges, Milosevic justified his actions in the Balkans as a "struggle against terrorism" and said he was a victim of twisted facts and "terrible fabrication."

During cross-examination, Milosevic sought to discredit Mahmut Bakalli, an ethnic Albanian politician who claimed the former Yugoslav president coldly destroyed Kosovo and was responsible for thousands of deaths in the province.

Milosevic, the first former head of state to be charged with war crimes while in office, is accused of crimes against humanity in Kosovo and Croatia, and of genocide in Bosnia during the 1991-99 Balkan wars. He could be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted on any one of 66 counts.

Although a law graduate, Milosevic never practiced law until he became his own defense attorney at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. He has refused to recognize the court, claiming it is an instrument of Western powers who want to destroy him and his nation.

At times sarcastic, Milosevic engaged in heated exchanges with Bakalli, trying to catch him in contradictions. He also highlighted Bakalli's links with Kosovo Albanian rebels, arguing that he was too biased to be a reliable witness.

In one exchange, Milosevic asked whether the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army was disarmed when international peacekeeping forces arrived in 1999.

"Yes, it was disarmed," Bakalli said.

"Then, what are they firing with now?" Milosevic asked, claiming 3,000 Serbs have been killed in Kosovo by "terrorists" since the arrival of the NATO-led troops.

"Arms can be purchased in Kosovo freely," Bakalli said.

"Do you know about drug trafficking in Kosovo?" Milosevic asked.

"No," said Bakalli.

"Do you know about arms smuggling in Kosovo?" Milosevic asked.

"No, that doesn't exist," said Bakalli.

"But you said a moment ago that weapons can be purchased freely in Kosovo," Milosevic countered.

Milosevic's cross-examination drew praise from some legal experts.

"What we have seen this morning was a very, very forceful, vigorous cross-examination," said Richard Dicker of the New York-based Human Rights Watch. He said Milosevic's ability to attack a witness's credibility is "a benchmark of fair trial ... for any accused in any court."

In Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital, Toma Fila, a lawyer who worked with Milosevic, said Bakalli "came ill-prepared and used incorrect facts in his testimony." He said Milosevic "blasted to shreds his testimony, knocked him out completely."

However, Fila called Milosevic's courtroom tactics an "improvisation" which "is not good in the long run."

In his most damaging testimony, Bakalli told the court Monday that in 1998, Milosevic admitted knowing about a Serb massacre of more than 40 members of an ethnic Albanian family in the village of Prekaz. He said Milosevic defended the police action as a fight against terrorists.

Milosevic could be convicted of war crimes for failing to prevent such atrocities committed by the Serbian security forces, which were under his command.

Trying to shake that testimony, Milosevic fired a series of questions about the killing: "Did you know that they did not want to surrender and they shot at policemen?"

"Do you know that the ones that came out of their house did not get killed?"

"Do you know of any police that would flee when they are fired at from a barricaded position?"

Bakalli said he did not have details, but that he knew women and children were among the victims. He accused Milosevic of responsibility for the deaths of thousands of people, including women and children, under the pretext of fighting terrorism in Kosovo.

Bakalli told the court Monday the Yugoslav leadership under Milosevic had planned to wipe out 700 Albanian settlements in Kosovo, but that the Serb security officers were unhappy with the plan.

Milosevic asked Bakalli why he failed to bring up the alleged plan - "if you thought it was genuine" - during their meetings in the late 1990s. Bakalli replied he didn't want to discuss the plan because it was revealed to him by a former Serbian security chief in Kosovo.

Presiding judge Richard May repeatedly intervened during exchanges, asking Milosevic to stick to relevant legal arguments and pleading with Bakalli to shorten his responses.

At one point, Milosevic asked Bakalli, a former Communist Party chief in Kosovo: "When did you change your communist convictions?"

"There is one conviction which I didn't change, and that is that you destroyed Yugoslavia with pleasure, through war," Bakalli responded.