Mladic aide arrives in The Hague

Tolimir is among the top fugitives from the UN war crimes court

A former Bosnian Serb general and close aide to key war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic has been handed over to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Zdravko Tolimir, 58, wanted by the UN tribunal over the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in 1995, was arrested in eastern Bosnia on Thursday.

Gen Mladic, the Bosnian Serbs' former military commander, is also wanted for the massacre and for other war crimes.

The other key figure still at large is ex-Bosnian Serb head Radovan Karadzic.

"In a joint operation involving Nato and the (European Union peacekeeping force) Eufor, detained fugitive and indicted war criminal Zdravko Tolimir has been delivered from Bosnia-Hercegovina to the authorities... in The Hague," Nato said in a statement.

He was flown from the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on a Nato aircraft.

Gen Tolimir was arrested near the Serbian border by police from Serbia and the Bosnian Serb republic (Republika Srpska) on Thursday.

Support network

He was the third most wanted suspect by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), after Gen Mladic and Mr Karadzic.

TRIBUNAL MOST WANTED Ratko Mladic, 64, former Bosnian Serb general Radovan Karadzic, 61, ex-Bosnian Serb leader Stojan Zupljanin, 55, ex-Bosnian Serb police chief Goran Hadzic, 48, former Croatian Serb official Vlastimir Djordjevic, 58, ex-Serb police chief in Kosovo Profile: Zdravko Tolimir Net tightens on Mladic

The BBC's Nick Hawton in Sarajevo says there will be renewed hope that the net around the two men still at large is now finally tightening.

Gen Tolimir was extremely close to Gen Mladic and may have been the chief co-ordinator of his support network, helping him to evade capture, our correspondent says.

In Serbia, the newly-formed pro-democratic government has set up a special national security council, whose main aim is to apprehend the remaining war crimes suspects.

It is chaired by Serbian President Boris Tadic, who has put a high priority on completing co-operation with the UN tribunal, so Serbia can restart talks on eventual EU membership.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn described the arrest of Gen Tolimir as "an important step towards bringing to justice all remaining fugitives".

Mr Rehn is holding talks later on Friday with Mr Tadic and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

Still at large

Gen Tolimir was an intelligence officer and senior aide to Gen Mladic at the time of the Srebrenica massacre, which was carried out by Bosnian Serbs under Gen Mladic's command.

Gen Tolimir is accused of helping to plan and carry out the murders, which have since been internationally recognised as genocide.

Both Gen Mladic and Mr Karadzic have been indicted for genocide over the killings in Srebrenica and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, which claimed more than 10,000 lives.

With Gen Tolimir's arrest, only five of the 161 people indicted by the UN tribunal remain at large.

In addition to Gen Mladic and Mr Karadzic, the other fugitive war crimes suspects are former Bosnian Serb police chief Stojan Zupljanin, 55; former Croatian Serb official Goran Hadzic, 48; and a former Serb police commander in Kosovo, Vlastimir Djordjevic, 58.