The Hague, 5 Nov. (AKI) - The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia decided on Thursday to appoint a defence lawyer for wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and to adjourn his trial until March 2010. Karadzic, accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, has boycotted the trial which was due to start on 26 October, saying he needed more time to prepare his defence.

Karadzic - who has been representing himself - appeared in court for the first time on Tuesday after boycotting the trial last week.

He insists he is innocent of all 11 war crimes charges from the 1992-95 Bosnian war, but has refused to enter pleas.

Karadzic, 64, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

“If Karadzic continues to boycott the trial in March, or in other way obstructs efficient and just conduct of the process, he will lose the right to defend himself,” the court said in a statement on Thursday.

The tribunal said, however, Karadzic would be allowed to defend himself if he appears in court on 1 March 2010, but the right would be taken away if he continued to obstruct the process.

Karadzic has been charged on two counts of genocide and nine counts of crimes against humanity, including a massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims committed by Bosnian Serb forces in eastern town of Srebrenica in July 1995.

He was arrested in the Serbian capital Belgrade in July last year, after twelve years in hiding.

Karadzic has threatened to go on a hunger strike if he was denied the right to defend himself and if a defence lawyer was appointed.