A senior Russian politician, Nikolai Ryzhkov, is beginning a five-day visit to Yugoslavia to collect evidence of what he says are Nato war crimes.

Mr Ryzhkov, who chairs a parliamentary commission on the impact of Nato's air campaign, is due to inspect sites in Belgrade and Pancevo that were bombed during the Kosovo conflict.

The Serbian news agency, Beta, said he would also see President Milosevic and visit Russian peacekeeping troops in Kosovo.

Mr Ryzhkov said he would pass any findings on to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, in spite of what he said were his misgivings about its objectivity.