Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has appeared before a UN war crimes judge for the first time to answer genocide charges.
Mr Karadzic, 63, was arrested last week after 11 years on the run. He wore a dark suit and appeared gaunt as he sat in the court.
Mr Karadzic said he would like more time to study genocide charges against him before entering a plea.
Judge Alphons Orie explained to Mr Karadzic that he need not enter a plea immediately, and could do so within 30 days from the initial appearance. If he refuses to enter a plea then, a plea of 'not guilty' is entered for him.
Mr Karadzic has said he intends to conduct his own defence.
'I have an invisible advisor but I've decided to represent myself,' he said through an interpreter.
The same tactic was adopted by his former ally late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who dragged out his own ICTY trial for years and died before it ended.
Mr Karadzic also said he wanted to be allowed to list 'numerous irregularities' regarding his presence at the hearing.
He also mentioned a deal he claimed was made with US negotiator Richard Holbrooke at the end of the 1992-95 Bosnian war that involved his withdrawal from public life.
But as he sought to list his grievances in detail, he was stopped short by the judge, who insisted that they be included in motions set before the court at a later date.
The next hearing was set for 29 August.
Since his arrest in Belgrade he has shorn the flowing beard and long hair that helped disguise him as an alternative healer in the years following the war.
The man who led a breakaway Serb Republic during the Bosnian War faces two charges of genocide over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War Two.
He appeared at the court after spending his first night in a cell at the UN war crimes tribunal detention centre in the Hague.
He was flown to the Netherlands on Wednesday morning.
