A Bosnian Serb general, Radislav Krstic, has pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity at his trial before the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

General Krstic, the highest-ranking military officer to be prosecuted in The Hague, has been accused of planning and assisting in a massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslim men after Serb forces overran the UN-declared safe-haven of Srebrenica in 1995.

He was arrested last week by NATO-led peacekeeping forces in the north of the Bosnian Serb Republic.

No trial date has yet been announced.