ZAGREB, Nov 18: United Nations war crimes investigators will quiz former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski next week about a clash between Macedonian troops and local ethnic Albanians in 2001 , his lawyer said on Thursday.

"The Hague investigators will start questioning Boskovski in Pula on Monday. They said it should last four days," lawyer Zvonimir Hodak said.

Mr Boskovski is currently in custody in the northern Croatian town of Pula for interrogation in a case involving the killing of six Pakistanis and an Indian.

His lawyer said the UN investigators were interested in Boskovski's role in a clash between Macedonian security forces and Albanian rebels in the village of Ljubotno in 2001. Ten Albanians were killed in the shooting.

"Boskovski will prove he is clear in that case as no one from the special police had taken part in that clash. Only spent military cartridges were found at the scene, which means it was the regular army forces that clashed with Albanians," Hodak said.

Croatia detained Boskovski at the request of Macedonia in August over an unrelated incident - the murder of seven Asian migrants in 2002.

Boskovski is a Croatian citizen and under Croatian law cannot be extradited to another country. Boskovski fled to Croatia earlier this year after Macedonia charged him and six former members of the security forces with the murder of a migrant group of six Pakistanis and one Indian in 2002.

The seven migrants were smuggled into Macedonia from Bulgaria and murdered. The scene of crime was altered to make it appear as if the migrants were armed Islamic militants, the Macedonian public prosecutor's office said.-Reuters