VILNIUS, March 20 (Reuters) - The trial of an 84-year-old Lithuanian accused of war crimes began on Monday, reopening controversy over the country's role in the mass murder of Jews in World War Two.

Algimantas Dailide, who could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted, says he was only a humble clerk for the Nazi-backed secret police. His accusers say he is one of the last surviving links with the genocide which all but wiped out Lithuania's more than 200,000 Jews.

For Lithuania, a new member of the European Union and NATO, the trial has exposed raw memories. Some accuse the ex-Soviet state of dragging its heels over prosecuting war criminals.

"There are some anti-Semitic elements in our society, it is true, but the authorities did their very best to advance the cases," history professor Egidijus Aleksandravicius said. "They are very aware of the pulse rate of Western democracies and are sensitive to what is being thought about Lithuania."

Only 6 percent of the country's Jews are estimated to have survived the war. Around 55,000 were killed in Vilnius alone.

Dailide, who has pleaded not guilty, has been charged with seizing the property of Jews and arresting 12 who were fleeing Vilnius, once a vibrant centre of Jewish life that had the sobriquet "Jerusalem of the North".

An American lawyer who has acted for Dailide calls the charges politically motivated, and says Jewish groups and Israel exerted pressure on Lithuania to prosecute at all costs.

"NONENTITY"

"Al Dailide was a nonentity. A 20-year-old police candidate," Joseph McGinness said. "I have seen thousands of documents, translated from Lithuanian, over the years and none implicates him." There are no witnesses against Dailide, who admits volunteering for Lithuania's Nazi-backed secret police, the Saugumas, but says he was a mere clerk. "I never conducted interrogations but sometimes I was sent out to buy snacks," he told the court.

If convicted he faces five years to life in prison and will become Lithuania's first incarcerated Nazi war criminal. Dailide now lives in Germany and came voluntarily to Vilnius for the trial, which Jewish groups call an important milestone.

"It's a chance for Lithuanians to confront the reality of their collective complicity with the Holocaust," said Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. "I am extremely pleased the trial has begun but it's important to remind the prosecutors that in the past many Lithuanian war criminals were given every chance by the authorities to avoid punishment."

Lithuania has put two other men in the dock before on similar charges. Aleksandras Lileikis, former chief of the Vilnius secret police, was charged with genocide for handing over Jews to the Nazis but his case was suspended because of ill health and he died in 2000 aged 93. His deputy Kazys Gimzauskas was convicted of participating in genocide, but ruled to be too senile to be punished.

Reuters, 20.03.06