SERBIA has predicted that fugitive general Ratko Mladic will be apprehended soon and put on trial at the UN war crimes tribunal.

Mladic, the Bosnian Serb wartime commander, was charged with genocide for the three-year Serb siege of Sarajevo and for the slaughter of 8000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said: "I hope, and I will suggest that sooner, rather than later, we are going to be able to announce that this chapter is closed."