A Norwegian court said on Monday that it would proceed with a trial of a Bosnian Muslim accused of war crimes against Serb civilians in 1992, rejecting the defence's petition to have the case dismissed.

Mirsad Repak, 42, stands charged with rape, torture, illegal imprisonment, violence, cruel treatment and violations of the laws or customs of war towards 18 Serbian non-combatants in the former Yugoslavia.

It is the first war crimes trial in Norway since those for Nazi collaboration after World War Two, and the first test of new Norwegian legislation on crimes against humanity and war crimes adopted in March this year.

The indictment alleges the crimes took place in connection with the internment of civilians in Stolac and at the Dretelj prison camp in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina. Repak was in the Croatian Defence Forces at the time, the state's case said.

Repak, who came to Norway in 1993 as an asylum-seeker and obtained Norwegian citizenship in 2001, entered a plea of 'not guilty' at the start of the trial on Aug. 27. If convicted, he could face up to 21 years in prison.

The defence argued that the state's case should be thrown out as unconstitutional because the indictment was based on legislation that was not in force when the crimes in the former Yugoslavia were alleged to have occurred.

But the Oslo District Court, made up of a panel of three judges, asserted its competence to try the case and said it would hear arguments on Monday from the prosecution and the defence and from an expert witness on the conflict.

The court said the actions in the indictment are punishable both under the old and new legislation, and the provisions regarding penalties and statutes of limitations are similar, so it is not unfair to apply the new war crimes legislation.

It also said in a statement that the prosecution's charges had been brought in May 2007 "concretely and informatively enough" to be within the 15-year statute of limitations.