The confrontation between former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian President Stipe Mesic at the Hague war crimes tribunal is widely covered by the press in Croatia and Serbia.

But papers in both countries are short on comment.

Croatian papers agree as to the thrust of Mr Mesic's testimony. "Milosevic was creating a Greater Serbia and not protecting Yugoslavia," reads a typical headline, in Rijeka's Novi List.

The Zagreb-based Nacional daily likewise focuses on the fact that President Mesic accused Mr Milosevic of warmongering.

Milosevic followed Mesic's testimony with ... frequent derisive smiles

Vecernji List

The Yugoslav People's Army, Serbs in the Yugoslav presidency, as well as in Croatia itself, "all placed themselves at Milosevic's disposal, whose aim was not, as he claimed, the preservation of Yugoslavia but the creation of a Greater Serbia - that is the main theme of the Mesic testimony", the paper says.

Derisive smiles

The Zagreb tabloid Vecernji List is equally forthright, saying Milosevic was "in charge of aggression against Croatia".

"Milosevic followed Mesic's testimony with arms crossed and frequent derisive smiles," the paper adds.

The leading Zagreb daily Vjesnik turns the spotlight on a parallel development at the Hague Tribunal, namely Croatia's efforts to resist the indictment of one of its former officials, General Janko Bobetko, for his alleged role in the killing of Serbs in Croatia in 1993.

Croatia is reluctant to hand over Gen Bobetko

The Bobetko case is also taken up by the satirical weekly Feral Tribune.

"In an electrified atmosphere created by the indictment against Gen Bobetko, Croatian President Stipe Mesic started his testimony... 40 minutes behind schedule," the paper says.

Bosnian deal

Meanwhile in Serbia, all the main papers carry factual reports about the latest events in the Hague.

Almost all headlines focus on one statement by Mr Mesic: that Mr Milosevic and the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman had met in 1991 and agreed a deal to carve up Bosnia.

Only Serbia's Nacional diverges from the general mould. It echoes the angle highlighted in the Croatian papers.

"Mesic: Milosevic was not interested in Serbs, but in creating a Greater Serbia," says its headline, meaning that the protection of ethnic Serbs in Croatia was just a pretext.

Both adversaries claim that the aim of the other was to dissolve Yugoslavia

Politika

This daily is the only one which reports some behind-the-scene details.

It says, for example, that Mr Mesic practised his evidence with a member of his team, before a mirror and with a microphone, on the eve of his court appearance.

Lawyers' claims

The Belgrade daily Politika notes that both adversaries "claim that the aim of the other was to dissolve Yugoslavia".

But, it says with a touch of bitterness, "only Slobodan Milosevic is on the bench of the accused, while Stipe Mesic is a witness for the prosecution".

Most Serbian dailies also include statements by Mr Milosevic's lawyers, who are repeating their view that the trial is a concoction by the prosecution, and that Mr Mesic has no more evidence to offer than any previous witness.

Simply, the lawyers say, because there is no evidence proving that Milosevic is guilty of what happened in former Yugoslavia.

The papers do, however, vary more in the prominence they give the story.

While Danas and Politika preview their reports on their front pages and carry them on page 2, Novosti and Blic write about the trial on pages 8 and 10 respectively.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.