Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's villa is surrounded by police as the Serbian government attempts to negotiate an end to a tense standoff.

Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said negotiations with Milosevic were underway, and he believed an end to the stand-off could be negotiated. But as Milosevic remained inside, new charges were brought against him for inciting an uprising and resisting arrest. The developments came on the eve of a U.S. deadline calling for Belgrade to cooperate with the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, which has indicted Milosevic, or face a cutoff of about $50 million in U.S. aid. As hundreds of demonstrators, most of them Milosevic supporters, gathered outside the property near Belgrade, Ministry of the Interior police reinforced their positions on Saturday. Hours earlier dozens of masked police gunmen stormed the compound surrounding the villa amid a flurry of flash grenades and gunfire. At one stage they made an unsuccessful attempt to break through the compound's gates by ramming them with a van. The police were attempting to arrest Milosevic on local charges of corruption and abuse of power. Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has insisted it would be unconstitutional to extradite Milosevic to The Hague. The Hague tribunal formally indicted then-Yugoslav President Milosevic for alleged war crimes in May 1999.