There was no reporting of the scale of the demonstrations, of the slogans or placards, or of the clashes with police which took place at a rally in the southern town of Leskovac.

Instead, the official Tanjug news agency quoted the representative of Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in Leskovac, Zivojin Stefanovic, who said the "unexpected and unfortunate" actions had not been spontaneous or non-party, as some "rumours" had suggested.

Opposition blamed

On the contrary, he said, the opposition Democratic Party and its newly-returned leader were squarely to blame.

"The Democratic Party has been trying to find supporters and a stronghold for its indecent activities in Leskovac, now that its leader, the deserter Zoran Djindjic, has returned home after visiting his sponsors abroad, who carried out the barbaric aggression against our homeland and genocide against our people," Mr Stefanovic said.

The Democratic Party had targeted the ruling SPS, he said.

"People were invited to the rally to lynch the SPS leaders, just because this party is the strongest and the best organised, held in very high regard by the people."

Moreover, he said, the organisers of the rally were "deserters and traitors and a handful of people whom the SPS kicked out of its ranks two years ago over political and other mistakes that they had made".

Reflections on heroism

The state media was more forthcoming about events on 7 July 1941 - Serbian Uprising Day, marking the start of the wartime struggle against fascism.

The day is marked as a public holiday, and this year provided an opportunity for the country's leaders to reflect on national heroism.

"The uprising of the Serbian people in the struggle against fascism represented the beginning of the victorious path of all fighters who prevailed over the greatest evil of this century," President Milosevic said in a message of congratulation, carried by the Tanjug agency.

"Our people's struggle against fascism was and has remained a lasting example of the love of freedom and heroism and an example to future generations of defenders of our homeland," Mr Milosevic added.

Yugoslav Army Chief-of-Staff General Dragoljub Ojdanic drew parallels between the National Liberation War (World War II) and recent events.

"Nurtured on this freedom-loving and fighting tradition of the National Liberation War and all liberation wars of our peoples, the members of the Yugoslav Army have strongly reaffirmed, in this war too, the military honour of our armed forces and have proved that they are rightly regarded as worthy descendants of their glorious ancestors.

"In its resistance to the numerically and technically vastly superior aggressors in the most unequal armed conflict in human history, the Yugoslav Army, together with units of the Serbian police and the people of Serbia and Yugoslavia, defended the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, social order and national dignity," the general said.