Zoran Djindjic, head of the Democratic Party, told a crowd of several hundred protesters in the town of Zabalj that such action was the only way to remove Mr Milosevic before the onset of winter.

"It's time for us to stop and look into the future so that our past will never happen again," he said.

Zoran Djindjic urges Serbs to look to the future without Milosevic

At the start of the rally the crowd held a minute's silence in memory of people from the town killed in a decade of war across Yugoslavia.

A series of anti-Milosevic rallies took place in a number of Serbian towns on Saturday in defiance of a warning by the Yugoslav president.

In the northwestern town of Vrbas - a Milosevic stronghold - several thousands protesters called on him to resign. A group of Mr Milosevic supporters threw eggs at the protesters, shouting that they were traitors.

Other rallies took place in the towns of Leskovac and Valjevo, where leaflets were reportedly distributed saying the opposition had been "empowered by citizens" to take the town's administration "and organise speedy elections.".

Enemies of the state

Mr Djindic and other opposition leaders, backed by the influential Serbian Orthodox church, are reported to have announced plans for a large rally to take place in the capital, Belgrade, later this month.

Mr Milosevic says the opposition are traitors

Yugoslav officials and the state media have meanwhile kept up their counter-offensive against the protesters, denouncing them as enemies of the state.

On Saturday Serbian Agriculture Minister Nedeljko Sipovac, a close aide to President Milosevic said the opposition were trying to replace the current government with western puppets intent on occupying the country.

On Friday Mr Milosevic himself appeared on state television saying he would stand firm against pressures "by which Nato, through various corrupt politicians, is trying to undermine our stability."