BRUSSELS, July 23: Serbia’s arrest of ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will boost its bid to join the European Union, EU officials said, urging Belgrade to quickly arrest the one big war crimes suspect still on the lam – Ratko Mladic.

Karadzic, wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for organising the deadly siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica, was arrested on Monday near Belgrade, Serbian officials said.

“Good news! We have waited for this for 13 years. Finally. Finally,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday at a monthly EU foreign ministers’ meeting.

The foreign ministers said Karadzic’s arrest showed “the commitment of the new government in Belgrade to contribute to peace and stability in the Balkans.”

“It is a significant step on Serbia’s path toward the EU,” the ministers said in a statement.

“We expect others to be arrested,” Kouchner added, referring to Mladic, the Bosnian Serb army commander during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and a close ally of Karadzic’s.

Still, the EU foreign ministers made no commitment on declaring Serbia an EU candidate or even enacting a pre-membership accord. That has been delayed by Belgrade’s previous refusal to send all war crimes suspects to the UN Yugoslav tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Serbian President Boris Tadic’s pro-western government came to power two weeks ago. His foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, said authorities arrested Karadzic as the new government “takes its international obligations seriously.”

Kouchner, whose country now holds the EU presidency, said Tadic’s government “is pro-European and not nationalist,” which is good “for the rapprochement of Serbia to the European Union.”

But the EU and Belgrade are also locked in a dispute over Kosovo, the ex-Serb province that declared itself independent in February. Jeremic reiterated “Serbia will not consider ceding one millimeter of ground” of Kosovo but continue to consider the area fully part of Serbia.

To date, 42 nations have recognised Kosovo’s independence, including the United States and 20 of the 27 European Union members.—AP