By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia - The United States on Tuesday formally demanded the arrest and extradition of a Serbian basketball player who fled the U.S. after being charged with severely beating a college classmate.

The demand was made by U.S. Ambassador to Belgrade Cameron Munter through the Serbian Foreign Ministry, the U.S. Embassy and Serbian ministry officials said.

The two countries' treaties effectively bar them from extraditing their own citizens. But legal experts said loopholes could be found that would allow the return of the basketball player since he fled the U.S. to avoid prosecution.

The 6-foot-9-inch, 260-pound Miladin Kovacevic, who was recruited to play basketball for Binghamton University, was arrested after a May 4 fight at a downtown Binghamton bar that left student Bryan Steinhauer near death.

Steinhauer, 22, remains in critical condition and has not regained consciousness since the attack.

New York congressmen have asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to pressure Serbia to immediately help locate the 20-year-old basketball player and return him to the United States, or face possible sanctions.

U.S. police said Kovacevic was at the bar with friends when Steinhauer danced with one of their girlfriends. Witnesses told police the men exchanged words before a fight ensued. Kovacevic is accused of repeatedly kicking Steinhauer in the head.

After several weeks in jail, Kovacevic was released June 6 when his family posted $100,000 bail. He left the U.S. on June 9.

As a condition of his release, Kovacevic surrendered his Serbian passport, but Serbian Deputy Consul Igor Milosevic allegedly furnished Kovacevic with travel documents. The Serbian Foreign Ministry said Milosevic is facing disciplinary action for issuing the new documents.

Kovacevic's family, in an interview with The New York Post from the Serbian town of Kula, said they had helped their son flee the United States because the "media circus" in New York had unfairly targeted him.

His father, Petar Kovacevic, was quoted as saying the student was "a victim of small-town values ganging up against a foreigner. He was targeted because he was a Serb and a very large man."

Kovacevic's parents said he also has a Croatian passport that he used to return home and that no special arrangements were made.