SKOPJE, Macedonia-The Macedonian Orthodox Church accused Serbia Tuesday of secretly financing a rival church in this tiny Balkan country.

Spokesman Bishop Timotei said the church had a document which allegedly showed that Serbia's government ministry in charge of religion gave €5,800 (US$6,900) in January to another Orthodox church, run by a dissident bishop, Jovan Vraniskovski.

"It is completely clear now who stands behind the church which Serbia wants to create with Macedonia's traitors and the servants of foreign interests," he said.

Macedonian law forbids establishing another Orthodox church in the country.

The Macedonian Orthodox Church, which is not recognized outside Macedonia, broke from the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1967.

Bishop Jovan himself broke ranks with his peers in 2002 when he supported an offer by the Serbian Orthodox Church for the two churches to reunite.

Ostracized and stripped of his church rank, he was convicted and sentenced last September to two years imprisonment for allegedly inciting racial and religious hatred and for misappropriating church funds.

Macedonia's Supreme Court last week reduced the sentence and Bishop Jovan was released at the weekend.

The case strained relations between Serbia and Macedonia, both former Yugoslav republics, and led to appeals for his release from human rights organizations and the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.

March 07, 2006 1:11 PM