Radoslav Brdjanin is the most senior Serb politician arrested in connection with atrocities carried out during the war in Bosnia.

Radoslav Brdjanin will be flown to The Hague

After his arrest by British troops in the northwest Bosnian town of Banja Luka, he was transferred to a US military base in Tuzla. From there he is to be flown to The Hague, seat of the UN War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Nato Secretary-General Javier Solana said the detention "will contribute to the continued consolidation of the peace in Bosnia".

Mr Solana added that the detention was carried out in line with the peacekeeping force S-For's mandate and that other war crimes suspects still at large would be brought to justice.

So far, the ICTY has tried or publicly indicted 66 people, 35 of whom are still at large, including the most wanted suspects, wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic.

Anger at surprise charge

Mr Brdjanin is the subject of a sealed indictment, under which details of the charges are not publicised in advance of an arrest.

The manner of his detention brought angry protests from other Bosnian Serb politicians.

"The SNS (Serb People's Alliance) expresses its protest and bitterness over the detention of Radoslav Brdjanin, who was not publicly indicted for war crimes," said Stanko Stanic, vice-president of the SNS.

"We do not mind if S-For arrests people who are publicly indicted for war crimes, but it is not human to arrest people in this way," he said.

But UK Defence Secretary George Robertson welcomed the arrest, saying Radoslav Brdjanin was in control of an area of north-western Bosnia when the Muslim and Croat populations were persecuted and driven out.

"Many were murdered and many others were imprisoned in the notorious concentration camps around Prijedor," he said.

Radoslav Brdjanin is a deputy in the Bosnian Serb parliament and leads the People's Party.