The court, the highest legal body of the United Nations, will now consider whether Croatia's claim has any merit, a U.N. statement said. Serbia cannot appeal rulings by the court, also known as the World Court.

Croatia first brought its charges in 1999, four years after the end of the war with Serbia.

Most of Serbia's jurisdictional claims involved its evolution from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro and finally to Serbia.

The court found that a continuous obligation to meet the agreements of the previous government exists. For example, the judges ruled that even though Serbia had not signed the Genocide Convention by 1999, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had.

No date has been set for hearing the merits of Croatia's claim. The only previous genocide case heard by the court involved claims brought by Bosnia against Serbia, which was cleared.