A statement by the defence ministry also ordered soldiers to pass on to their superior officers any information they may have about suspects sought by the tribunal, Beta said.

"Failing to respect this order will be considered as a violation of military discipline," the ministry statement said.

Defence Minister Boris Tadic said the move aimed to "put an end to the charges that the army of Serbia and Montenegro is protecting war crimes suspects."

The new union of Serbia and Montenegro, formed last February, is under constant international pressure to step up cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

The push to capture indicted war crimes suspects follows a widespread hunt for the murderers of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic in March.

The government blamed organised crime gangs, linked to nationalist forces opposed to cooperation with the ICTY, of being behind the killing.

Since Djindjic's assassination, police have questioned 10,000 people and detained 4,500, including policemen, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, army officials, politicians and former senior officials.

Many of the detained were reportedly members of paramilitary units, blamed for some of the worst atrocities committed during the 1990s Balkans wars.

The ICTY believes that former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, one of the court's most wanted suspects, is hiding in Serbia.

"If Mladic does not surrender, then our forces -- if he is on our country's territory -- will arrest him and bring him to justice," Tadic said.

Mladic and Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, also at large, are charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes for their leading role in the persecution of non-Serbs in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war and their involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

More than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were killed after Bosnian Serb troops, led by Mladic, overran the UN-declared safe area of Srebrenica in July 1995. It is considered the single worst atrocity committed on European soil since World War II.

Tadic also called on another key suspect, Colonel Veselin Sljivancanin, indicted for killing over 200 civilians in the Croatian town of Vukovar in November 1991 to give himself up.

Two other suspects in the case -- former officers Miroslav Radic and Mile Mrksic -- have already surrendered. Mrksic was flown to The Hague last year while Radic's extradition is expected in the coming weeks.

SPACE.WIRE