Belgrade - Many close associates of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic have regained key positions in Serbia, a press report said Saturday.

"Three have become ministers and two are running state corporations," the Belgrade newspaper Press reported.

This week saw the return of top Milosevic aide Gorica Gajevic, after an eight-year absence from the politcal stage. The former secretary-general of Milosevic's Socialist party SPS was given a senior position in Raska, a town 200 kilometres south of Belgrade.

Under an article headlined "the grand return of Milosevic's people," the daily said many of the former Milosevic clique were either back in power or in The Hague - a reference to the UN war crimes tribunal.

Milosevic himself died in The Hague after suffering a heart attack while on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Two other associates of Milosevic, who was deposed in a popular uprising in October 2000, are currently on trial before the court.

The SPS is now part of Serbia's ruling coalition. Many of the old guard have found their way back into in senior positions, the newspaper said. (dpa)