Judges at the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia have dropped one of two genocide charges against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

At the Hague, presiding judge O-Gon Kwon said prosecutors did not present enough evidence to support the genocide count in relation to killings by Bosnian Serb forces in towns and villages of Bosnia during the early part of the country's 1992-1995 war.

Judges, however, upheld another genocide count covering his alleged involvement in the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

Karadzic also faces nine counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to his alleged plan to ethnically cleanse Bosnia of its non-Serbs through murder, extermination, deportation and genocide.

Lawyers for Karadzic are set to begin presenting their evidence on October 16. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.