The Hague, 24 Nov. (AKI) - The trial of Serbian nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj will resume at the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in January, the presiding judge Jean-Claude Antonetti, said on Tuesday.

Seselj, the leader of the nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) has been charged with crimes against Muslims and Croats during the 1991-1995 war that followed the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

He is held responsible for crimes allegedly committed by volunteers recruited by his party.

He surrendered voluntarily to the tribunal in February 2003 and his trial started in November 2007.

The trial was interrupted last February at the request of the prosecution, because some protected witnesses in the case claimed to have been threatened.

Seselj was sentenced to a year and a half in jail for contempt of the court.

Antonetti said the prosecution has left five and half hours to present and question its last witness.

The court rejected the prosecution's request for more time and witnesses.

Seselj, who is defending himself, has denied the charges against him and said the ICTY was stretching the trial indefinitely because it had no case against him.

He has said he was tried for "verbal offense" and threatened to make a mockery of the court.