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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- President Slobodan Milosevic is willing to hold elections early in Yugoslavia, his spokesman says, but he is rejecting rivals' calls for the vote to be under international supervision.
``The stories of electoral fraud are unreal, and so are the demands for the presence of'' monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Spokesman Ivica Dacic said. Some opposition figures want the group to supervise the balloting.
Dacic's comments Monday are part of an apparent ongoing campaign by Milosevic supporters to rally nationalist sentiment -- heightened by continuing attacks against Serbs in Kosovo -- in an effort to undercut opposition efforts to topple the Yugoslav leader.
``The American policies are clear: split up the country, disunite the people, create chaos and come to make peace by occupying'' our territory, Dacic said.
Dacic also dismissed opponents' complaints about Milosevic's stranglehold over the mass media. Opponents say the president is trying to make people believe they are working with the United States to break Kosovo province from Serbia forever. Serbia is Yugoslavia's dominant republic.
``The stories about the freedom of the media and the changing of the media laws are only an alibi (for the opposition) not to take part in the elections,'' he said.
NATO's devastating bombing and the de facto loss of Kosovo following years of economic misery have fueled demands for the president's ouster.
Vladan Batic, an opposition leader who is leading street protests to oust Milosevic, said Monday his party was not opposed to early elections, but only if Serbian leaders who are indicted for war crimes and those under traveling restrictions are banned from participating.
Milosevic and four of his top aides have been indicted by a U.N. war crimes court. About 300 Serbian government officials have been banned from traveling abroad by the European Union and other Western states for supporting Milosevic's autocratic policies.
Batic said that since Milosevic is unlikely to accept those conditions, a part of the opposition will continue with their street protests until the Yugoslav president is ousted.
Another part of the fractured Serbian opposition, led by Vuk Draskovic, is demanding early elections as the only way to oust Milosevic and prevent civil war. Draskovic has said he would take part in the elections only if Milosevic gives up his control of the mass media -- his chief pillar of power -- and allows the vote to be monitored by the OSCE.
The opposition claims all Serbian elections since Milosevic came to power 10 years ago have been rigged.
``We are against elections directed by Slobodan Milosevic,'' said the vice president of the opposition Civic Alliance, Konstantin Obradovic. ``We will not be fooled by this regime.''