The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic won some of the extra time that he insists he needs to prepare his defence on genocide charges when his trial was adjourned until March yesterday.

Judges at the war crimes trial in The Hague will appoint a lawyer who will use that time to prepare to stand in for Dr Karadzic if he continues to boycott proceedings.

Dr Karadzic, 64, who was arrested in Belgrade 15 months ago, refused to take part in the first three days of his trial, arguing that he needed another nine months to digest 1.3 million pages of prosecution evidence on 11 war crimes charges.

The judges said in a written decision that he would retain the right to represent himself if he turned up on March 1 and the trial resumed. Otherwise, his defence team will be dismissed and the court-appointed lawyer will take over. The judges are determined to avoid the trial suffering from the same kind of hold-ups as in the case of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav President, who managed to string out proceedings for more than four years and died in custody before a verdict was reached.

The judges wrote that the appointed counsel would take over should Dr Karadzic “continue to absent himself from the resumed trial proceedings in March, or should he engage in any other conduct that obstructs the expeditious conduct of the trial, he will forfeit his right to self-representation . . . and the appointed counsel will take over”.

Giving him one last chance, they added: “Should Karadzic not engage in such conduct, the trial will proceed with the accused continuing to represent himself and the appointed counsel will attend the proceedings and remain available to step in.”

Dr Karadzic faces two counts of genocide and nine charges of crimes against humanity over a series of atrocities, including the massacre of up to 8,000 men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica. He has refused to enter pleas.

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