Signalling serious political fallout after the defiant extradition of former President Slobodan Milosevic to face war crimes charges, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has said the move threatened the future of the Yugoslavian federation.

Kostunica, who opposed the extradition, on Thursday sharply criticized the Serb republic for using ''illegal means'' that could have been taken from Milosevic's own arsenal of illegal and undemocratic manipulations.

''Someone was in a real hurry to fulfill an obligation, but who knows who made the promise and to whom,'' Kostunica said in remarks broadcast by the state television Yu-Info.

He called the extradition to the UN. War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague ''unnecessary, not properly thought out and premature''.

Kostunica was overruled by his own cabinet and by the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who spirited Milosevic out of the country on Thursday in defiance of a constitutional court ruling that suspended the extradition decree.
Bureau Report