MOSCOW, March 16 (RIA Novosti) - Serbian socialists said Thursday they would organize an honorable funeral for former president Slobodan Milosevic.

Zoran Anjelkovic, General Secretary of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), of which Milosevic was honorary president, said the party was in contact with Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica to coordinate funeral procedures, adding that the party did not want to turn the funeral into a political manifestation and expected no trouble.

"The SPS does not envisage any disorders, although several thousand people are expected to come," Anjelkovic said. "Our goal is not to make funeral a political act, but to let our people to say farewell to their [former] president."

He said people from all over the country would be able to pay their respects to Milosevic from 1 p.m. GMT Thursday till 11 a.m. GMT Saturday, with a farewell ceremony set for Belgrade's square near the parliament building from 1 p.m. on March 18.

Milosevic's body will be taken after the ceremony for burial in Pozarevac, the family home, about 45 miles from the Serbian capital.

Milosevic, 64, was found dead in his prison cell March 11. Preliminary reports suggest he died of a heart attack. The former Yugoslav president was on trial at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on charges of war crimes and genocide.

Anjelkovic praised Russia's efforts to provide medical assistance for Milosevic, who was suffering from a heart condition and high blood pressure, and asked that he be allowed to come to Moscow for treatment at the Bakulev Institute, Russia's leading cardiology center. The Russian Foreign Ministry promised that Milosevic would be returned to The Hague for his trial as soon as the treatment course was over.

The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia refused to grant Milosevic temporary release from detention to travel to Russia, saying there were insufficient guarantees that he would return for his trial, and that there was no evidence to prove he could not be given adequate medical care without leaving the Netherlands.