Los Angeles, March 2 (MIA) - A former Serbian spy chief who served under president Slobodan Milosevic and is now being tried for war crimes worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency, AFP reports citing the Los Angeles Times on Monday.

Jovica Stanisic had been recruited by CIA officer William Lofgren, who was desperate to get intelligence from inside the turmoil in the former Yugoslavia following its breakup, the newspaper said.

During secret meetings in Belgrade, Stanisic shared details on the inner workings of the Milosevic regime, the report said.

He provided information on the locations of NATO hostages, helped CIA operatives in their search for grave sites and helped the agency set up a network of secret bases in Bosnia, the Los Angeles Times reported.

But at the same time, the US spy was setting up death squads for Milosevic that carried out a genocidal campaign in Bosnia and elsewhere, and is now facing trial at The Hague by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, established by the UN Security Council.

Facing a life sentence, Stanisic has now appealed to his former American allies for help, according to the paper.

And the Central Intelligence Agency has submitted to the court a classified document that lists Stanisic's contributions and attests to his helpful role in the Yugoslav conflict.

Lofgren, who is now retired, told the Los Angeles Times that the CIA had drafted the document to show "that this allegedly evil person did a whole lot of good."

Lofgren doesn't aim to disprove the allegations against Stanisic, the report said.

"But setting the indictment aside, there are things this man did that helped bring hostilities to an end and establish peace in Bosnia," he is quoted as saying in the report.

The Los Angeles Times article was widely picked up Monday by media in Belgrade, where the Serbian government said it was yet to verify the report's credibility and form an opinion on the matter. ba/fd/17:42

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