"If Serbia decides to extradite me, then I would prefer Bosnia. There I will at least have a chance for a fair trial. Going to Croatia would mean my certain death," Vucurevic told Vecernje Novosti of Thursday.

He said that he would have answered before the Hague war crimes tribunal a long time ago had there been any grounds to charge him with the shelling of the historic Croatian town of Dubrovnik and the persecution of non-Serbs, and that the UN tribunal had questioned him in detail about those allegations back in 2002.

"(Yugoslav People's Army) Admiral Miodrag Jokic and Lieutenant General Pavle Strugar were tried before the Hague tribunal for the six-month war in Dubrovnik and were given long prison sentences ... which finally confirmed that I had no command responsibility as head of the neighbouring municipality across the border," said Vucurevic.

Vucurevic was released from custody in Belgrade on June 17 in the continuation of extradition proceedings launched against him after Croatian and Bosnian authorities requested his extradition from Serbia. He was banned from leaving Serbia's territory.

He was arrested at a Bosnia-Serbia border crossing in mid-April on an international warrant issued by Croatia which wants him for his role in the shelling of Dubrovnik in the early 1990s, when he was mayor of the neighbouring Bosnian town of Trebinje. The County Prosecutor's Office in Dubrovnik indicted him in October 2008 for war crimes against civilians in the Dubrovnik area and the destruction of cultural and historical monuments between 1991 and 1995.

He is also wanted by Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he is under investigation for war crimes in Trebinje.

A final decision on Vucurevic's extradition rests with Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic.

Vucurevic holds Bosnian citizenship. In 2008 he applied for Serbian citizenship but his application was not granted.