The tribunal in The Hague ordered Milutinovic released from custody, but it convicted five other senior Serbs and gave them prison sentences of between 15 and 22 years. It was the court's first judgement establishing widespread Serb crimes in Kosovo.

Milutinovic's acquittal was a blow to prosecutors who three years ago lost their chance of convicting former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic of similar crimes when he died of a heart attack before his trial ended.

In what was as close to a guilty verdict for Milosevic himself as the court has ever come, presiding judge Iain Bonomy of Scotland said Milosevic was the most powerful commander of Serb troops and military police who carried out a campaign of murder, rape and deportations that forced nearly 800,000 ethnic Albanians to fleeKosovo before Nato airstrikes forced a Serb withdrawal in mid-1999.

"In practice, it was Milosevic, sometimes termed the 'supreme commander' who exercised actual command authority over the (Serb army) during theNato campaign," Bonomy said. The court ruled that the plot was led by Milosevic and that Milutinovic had no role.

The five convicted of involvement in the campaign were: former Yugoslav deputy prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, ex-Yugoslav army chief of staff Dragoljub Ojdanic, former army generals Nebojsa Pavkovic and Vladimir Lazarevic and Serbian police general Sreten Lukic.

Sainovic, Pavkovic and Lukic were found guilty of charges of deportation, forcible transfer, murder and persecution and each given 22-year prison sentences.Ojdanic and Lazarevic were convicted of deportation and forcible transfer of civilians but acquitted of murder and persecution. They each got 15 years.

Lawyers for Sainovic and Ojdanic said they would appeal. Prosecution spokeswoman Olga Kavran said prosecutors will study the lengthy judgement before deciding whether to appeal.

However, prosecutors welcomed the judgement, saying it proved Serbian forces engaged in a brutal campaign to drive Albanians out ofKosovo. It also rejected the defendants' claims that many Albanians fled the country because of Natos bombing campaign, Kavran said.

Among crimes judges said prosecutors proved were mass murders of Albanian men, the rape of four women and the killing of eight more. Serb forces also buried scores of bodies in mass graves in Serbia in an attempt to conceal their crimes, the judgement said.

The tribunal has indicted 161 suspects, most of them Serbs, and wrapped up cases against 116 of them.