THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A former U.S. policy analyst, testifying for the defense at Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial Wednesday, said part of the groundwork for what became the al-Qaida terrorist network was laid during the Bosnian war in the 1990s break-up of Yugoslavia.

The testimony of analyst James Jatras appeared directed at showing the U.S. government likely knew that Islamic fundamentalists were fighting in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war and in the Serbian province of Kosovo in the 1990s.

Milosevic has claimed that the Serbs in Kosovo and the former Yugoslav republics were fighting wars of self defense against what he described as persecution by Croats and Muslims. In his opening statement last week, he accused the United States of being part of an anti-Serb conspiracy that also included Germany, NATO, Islamic countries and the Vatican.

Prosecutors allege that Milosevic designed and carried out a complex plan to create an ethnically pure Serb nation by expelling or murdering non-Serbs in the former Yugoslav republics to carve out a "Greater Serbia."

Jatras, testifying at Milosevic's resumed trial, had compiled several reports on Yugoslavia when he worked for the Senate Republican Policy Committee from 1985-2000.

Reinforcing his earlier conclusions, Jatras said the U.S. commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States had found that the "groundwork for a true terrorist network was being laid" in 1990s Bosnia. He called it "a small footprint movement" that later became recognized as al-Qaida.

Prosecutors protested that Jatras was an analyst with no firsthand knowledge of the wars, but judges allowed him to continue, saying his opinion as an expert was of interest.

"I don't see how it could possibly help us," prosecutor Geoffrey Nice said.

Jatras was questioned by Steven Kay, a lawyer assigned last week as Milosevic's defense counsel over the defendant's angry objections. The former Serb leader conducted his own defense for two years until doctors ruled that he was in danger of a heart attack if he continued.

"I demand that you return my right to self defense," a scowling Milosevic said at one point Wednesday after presiding Judge Patrick Robinson asked him a question.

"You took it away from me, and it violates all conceivable international norms, even your own," Milosevic said.

But Robinson said the court has "been over that ground. We will not rehearse it," and cut Milosevic off.