A number of people are reported to have been arrested in connection with the killing of the Serbian paramilitary leader known as Arkan.

The Serbian Ministry of Information said police had made the arrests in Belgrade but officials would not confirm whether the suspected assassin was among them.

The ministry said more information would be released in the next few days.

News of the arrests came as around 500 mourners gathered for a memorial service in Belgrade for Arkan, whose real name was Zeljko Raznatovic.

The 47-year-old Serb warlord was gunned down, along with two other associates, in the lobby of a Belgrade hotel on Saturday.

Memorial service

On Tuesday, police were reported to have arrested an accomplice in the killing. The man was said to be receiving hospital treatment for serious wounds sustained in the attack.

Friends and relatives as well as members of his paramilitary group, the Tigers and his Obilic soccer team paid their last respects at the service in Belgrade's Union Hall.

His funeral will take place on Thursday. Arkan was regarded by many Serbian nationalists as a hero.

But he was indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague for atrocities allegedly committed during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

There is still no police report on the assassination.

But a spokesman for the Yugoslav foreign ministry has repeated official denials that the government was involved in the killing and accused Western media of exacerbating the story.

There has been speculation that the Serb Government played a role in the killing because he was ready to give evidence against President Slobodan Milosevic as part of a plea bargain with war crimes investigators.

"Arkan is not a political figure," a Serbian foreign ministry spokesman said.

"The West is blowing this story up, and we have nothing to do with it.

"We are not even interested in it. Let the authorities do their job (in finding Arkan's killers)," he said.

The independent Blic newspaper said an alleged accomplice, identified as Dusan Gavric, 25, was hospitalised in the western Serbian town of Loznica near the Bosnian border.

He reportedly served with Arkan's militia and was a junior member of Serbia's state security service.

The government-owned newspaper Politika and the pro-government daily Vecernje Novosti also carried the report on the alleged accomplice's arrest on Tuesday.

According to Politika, a gunman shot Arkan in the head, then fired at the two others.

'Staggered and fell'

"Together with his accomplice, he started to race, making it to the entrance of the hotel," Politika said.

"At this moment, Arkan's sole bodyguard opened fire on them. He shot the accomplice who staggered and fell, but despite the heavy gunshot wound, succeeded in escaping together with the killer with a car waiting nearby."

Belgrade police said they could not confirm the reports.