Yugoslav Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic was born into a political family in Montenegro and became one of President Slobodan Milosevic's closest allies.

He remained loyal to the president and federal Yugoslavia despite the provincial government's wish for greater autonomy.

Born on 13 December 1948 in Gornji Rovci, near Kolasin in the north of Montenegro, he studied for an economics degree in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica.

He later became a tutor in Podgorica and between 1984 and 1989 he edited the student newspaper Univerzitetska Rijec.

It was during this period he met and became close friends with Momir Bulatovic - a fellow student and no relation - who is Yugoslavia's current prime minister.

He became interior minister in the first Montenegrin Government to be chosen in multi-party elections in 1991, before moving to Belgrade in 1992 where he became interior minister in the Yugoslav cabinet.

Mr Bulatovic was a close ally of President Milosevic and two years later he became defence minister.

During the Bosnian civil war in 1991 he maintained close links with Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, who have both since been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague