NATO-led peacekeepers have arrested a Bosnian Serb general, suspected of war crimes.

A NATO statement said that General Radislav Krstic had been detained in Bosnia and was being brought to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Louise Arbour, said Krstic was a very significant military leader.

She said he had been arrested under a secret indictment which prevents suspects having prior warning of their arrest.

A tribunal spokesman Jim Landale told the BBC the indictment was for crimes relating to the fall of Srebrenica -- a UN-declared safe haven which was overrun by Serb gunmen in 1995.

Many of the town's Muslim inhabitants were subsequently massacred.