Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Pavle has died in a Belgrade hospital at the age of 95.

Pavle was elected the 44th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox church in 1990, the same year Slobodan Milosevic' ultra-nationalist party came to power. In the following Balkan wars, the patriarch sided with the nationalist Serbs and the Bosnian Serbs, although relations between him and the nationalists slowly cooled.

Eventually, Patriarch Pavle effectively sided with the opposition when he said he held the then president Milosevic responsible for the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the worsening crisis in Serbia and Montenegro.

Last year Pavle requested permission to resign after spending a year in hospital. However, the Serbian Orthodox bishops rejected his request because a patriarch is expected to lead the church until his death.

Photo: Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Pavle (EPA)