Serbia Ready To Pay $1.25 Mln For Info On Mladic

Rasim Ljajic: `Anyone who gives us a right information that will lead us to Mladic`s arrest will get one million euros,`

Serbia renewed its offer to pay a million euro reward ($1.25 million) for information leading to the arrest of top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic, said the point man for cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

"The offer is absolutely valid. Anyone who gives us a right information that will lead us to Mladic's arrest will get one million euros," Minister Rasim Ljajic told Vecernje Novosti daily.

Mladic, the commander of the Bosnian Serb forces in the 1992-95 Bosnia war, was indicted in 1995 on genocide charges for the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and for orchestrating the Srebrenica massacre of about 8,000 Muslims.

His arrest is the key condition for Serbia's progress on the European Union path. Serbia had hoped that the July arrest of Karadzic would boost its EU aspirations, but the 27-nation bloc said Mladic also must be arrested.

U.N. chief war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz will visit Belgrade on Monday to report on Serbia's progress in the hunt for Mladic and one other remaining fugitive.

His report to the U.N. Security Council, due in December, will strongly influence the fate of the EU membership application which Serbia is expected to file early next year.

Serbia's Council for National Security, headed by President Boris Tadic, took the decision on the reward in October last year, and also included a 250,000 euro reward for information on Croatian Serb wartime leader Goran Hadzic.

But there was no mention of the reward since. In the meantime, Serbia extradited two war crimes suspects, Stojan Zupljanin and Radovan Karadzic.

There was no reward for Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, since he was not a Serbian citizen and there were no indications at the time that he was hiding in Serbia.

Serbian officials said last week the search for Mladic had been intensified and the country's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said on Thursday an operation was underway to find helpers and cut finances aiding Mladic to hide.

"The reward demonstrates Belgrade's dedication to fulfil the rest of its obligations towards the tribunal as soon as possible," Ljajic said. "By this we are showing also that there is a political will for extraditing Mladic," Ljajic said.