Croatia on Monday said Serbia was "in denial" over genocide allegedly committed in the early 1990s, at the start of a court case that threatens to further sour relations between the Balkan neighbours.

"Many political leaders in Serbia have maintained an attitude of denial" about the alleged genocide, Croatia's representative Vesna Crnic-Grotic told the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The U.N.'s highest International Court of Justice is to hear arguments next month in a long-running genocide case that threatens to sour relations between Croatia and Serbia.

The Hague-based ICJ "will hold public hearings in the case concerning Croatia vs Serbia from Monday March 3 to Tuesday, April 1," it said in a statement Friday.

Croatia's 93-year-old former interior minister went on trial Wednesday charged with ordering the killing of 21 civilians at the end of World War II.

Josip Boljkovac, who pleaded not guilty, is the first former Communist official to be tried for crimes allegedly committed during World War II since Croatia proclaimed independence from the former Yugoslavia.

Croatia on Friday extradited its former top spy to Germany, wanted over his role in a 1983 murder, in a bid to end a row with EU over the case.

Josip Perkovic, sought under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) which regulates extradition between the bloc's 28 member states, was escorted by police from his Zagreb home to the airport, where he was handed over to German authorities in the early afternoon, state television reported.

Croatia's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the country's former top spy to stop his extradition to Germany, paving a way towards ending a row with the European Union, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Josip Perkovic, wanted under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) which regulates extradition between the bloc's 28 member states, should be extradited since the court "rejected his appeal as unfounded," spokesman Drazen Tripalo said in a statement.

A Croatian priest dubbed the "playboy minister" for his luxurious lifestyle went on trial on Thursday charged with embezzling some 1.3 million euros ($1.7 million) through the illegal sale of church property.

Franciscan priest Sime Nimac was charged before a local court in the coastal town of Split together with a former bank employee believed to be his lover who allegedly helped him with the scheme, a court official said.

A Croatian court on Wednesday backed the extradition of the country's former top spy to Germany, in a step towards calming a row between the European Union and its newest member.

The Zagreb court approved Germany's request for the extradition of Josip Perkovic under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW), which regulates extradition between EU member states, a tribunal's spokeswoman Ivana Calic said.

Several dozen graves and a mortuary at a Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Croatia have been badly damaged, police said Tuesday, in the latest incident stirring fears of ethnic tensions in the EU's newest member state.

Unidentified vandals broke tombstones, crosses, grave monuments and windows at the mortuary in Cepin, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of Zagreb, police said in a statement.

A former Croatian top spy sought by Germany whose case sparked a row between the European Union and Croatia, its newest member, was released from detention Friday pending an extradition ruling.

A court in Zagreb ruled that Josip Perkovic should be freed following an appeal from his lawyer, but he will not be allowed to leave the Croatian capital and his passport was seized, spokesman Kresimir Devcic told reporters.

Hundreds of people reported to be doctors have been charged with corruption in Croatia following a probe targeting a local pharmaceutical firm whose management was also indicted, officials said Saturday.

"The charges are brought up against 364 Croatian citizens and Farmal pharmaceutical company for bribery, abuse of power and corruption," the country's anti-graft bureau said in a statement.