Slobodan Milosevic?s body was released to his family yesterday, while experts try to establish whether his death from a heart attack months before a verdict in his war crimes trial was due to natural causes.

It was not immediately clear where the body of the man branded the ?Butcher of the Balkans? over the conflicts in the 1990s would go ? his widow lives in Russia and faces arrest in Serbia ? or where the burial or cremation would take place.

A preliminary autopsy report on Sunday showed the 64-year-old former Yugoslav president died of a heart attack but speculation continued over whether he might have killed himself to thwart an impending verdict in his four-year-old trial.

Milosevic?s lawyer said he feared he was being poisoned.

The autopsy on the body of Milosevic, who suffered from a heart condition and high blood pressure, was conducted by Dutch scientists and attended by Serbian pathologists. Serbia said the autopsy was very professional. The whole procedure was filmed.

A spokeswoman for the UN tribunal said it was too early to say whether the heart attack might have been caused by poisoning or whether suicide could be ruled out, noting that an inquiry ordered by court president Fausto Pocar was continuing.

Former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic committed suicide at the detention centre last week.

Milosevic, found dead in bed in his cell on Saturday, faced a possible life sentence over charges on 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes involving conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo as Yugoslavia imploded in the 1990s.

The pathologists said Milosevic died of a ?myocardial infarction? that could be explained by two heart conditions he suffered from, the UN tribunal said.

<B>Toxicological examination</B>

A myocardial infarction is usually caused by a blockage in one of the coronary arteries that supplies blood to the heart.

?A toxicological examination will still be carried out,? the court said. Cardiologists treating Milosevic in The Hague had warned he was at risk of a life-threatening hypertensive emergency, when surges in blood pressure can damage the heart, kidneys and central nervous system.

Milosevic?s lawyer said on Sunday his client had written to Russia asking for help a day before his death as he believed he had been given the wrong drugs ? including some for leprosy and tuberculosis ? in a bid to silence him.

Some media reports suggested he may have had suspicious traces in his blood or had not been taking his medication.

Last month, the tribunal rejected a request by Milosevic to travel to Russia for specialist medical treatment.

Leo Bokeria, head of the cardiology centre in Moscow where Milosevic had wanted to be treated, told Russia TV he was not convinced that poisoning provoked the heart attack.

It was not clear whether Milosevic?s widow Mira Markovic would come to The Hague to collect his body. She visited him at the detention centre until 2003, when she fled Serbia for Russia to avoid arrest on charges of abusing her power.

Serbian media reported that Markovic, son Marko and daughter Marija did not agree where Milosevic should be buried. Both Markovic and Marko were said to want him to be buried in Moscow. Marija lives in Montenegro, where Milosevic?s parents came from.

Serbian President Boris Tadic said Milosevic should not get a state burial and he would not grant an amnesty to Markovic.

Belgrade is under pressure to arrest six remaining war crimes fugitives as it moves towards European Union membership, among them Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, both accused of genocide.

<B>Nicola Leske</B>

<B>Milosevic blood showed he took wrong drugs-ANP</B

Tests on Slobodan Milosevic?s blood taken before he was found dead on Saturday showed traces of a medicine that negated the effect of high blood pressure drugs, Dutch news agency ANP reported yesday. ANP said the U.N. war crimes tribunal asked Groningen University toxicologist Donald Uges to conduct the tests at the end of last year to find out why Milosevic?s blood pressure remained so high despite the drugs he was prescribed. Uges told ANP he had found traces of rifampicin -- a drug against leprosy and tuberculosis -- in his blood.

Groningen University was not immediately available to comment on the ANP report.