Severina Vuckovic told the daily Jutarnji List Wednesday the pictures and an 11-minute video of her making love to an unidentified dark-haired man had been stolen from her private collection.

They showed up on an Internet site Tuesday and immediately became the hottest news in the former Yugoslav republic, where 32-year-old Vuckovic had previously been an icon of righteous and religious modesty.

"The pictures are my private property. They were taken two years ago and were stolen," said the singer.

The www.index.hr site which first published the photos withdrew them Wednesday. Its editor Matija Babic said they were careful to choose shots that were not too revealing.

"We did not want to show her breasts, let alone anything more," Babic said. A far more explicit version of the sex session has meanwhile been circulating the Web.