BELGRADE, Oct 4 (AFP) - Top Balkan war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic is still hiding in the former Yugoslav republic of Serbia despite Belgrade's denials, chief UN prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said during a visit here Monday.
Del Ponte repeated demands for the arrest and extradition of fugitive suspects from the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia when she met Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
"My personal opinion is still that he (Mladic) is here and nobody denied that to me," she said of the former Bosnian Serb military commander who is wanted on charges including genocide for his role in Bosnia's 1992-95 war.
"Of course we expect the arrest of Mladic, the transfer of Mladic and all the other fugitives. A great test of the political will to really, fully cooperate will be to arrest the fugitives," she said.
She said Kostunica had promised Belgrade's full cooperation. The prime minister has been a vocal critic of the UN tribunal at The Hague which is prosecuting war crimes suspects from the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.
"I am expecting results immediately because it's possible, in a few days, in a few weeks. I would be able to analyze and to see if what I have received this morning from Prime Minister Kostunica is the real truth," Del Ponte said.
"I am very optimistic. I think that Prime Minister Kostunica understands the importance for the country to cooperate with us."
She said she would be looking for signs of progress as she prepared to give a routine report to the UN Security Council in November.
Del Ponte has repeatedly claimed that Mladic is hiding in Serbia under the protection of elements of the Serbian military, although Belgrade denies any knowledge of his whereabouts.
Some 20 war crimes indictees, including four senior Serbian generals, are at large in the former Yugoslav republic of Serbia, the largest of the six Balkan republics which made up the former socialist federation of Yugoslavia.
The prosecutor said she expected Belgrade to arrange the extradition of the generals, wanted for alleged war crimes committed during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo, after their "voluntary surrender".
Kostunica has virtually frozen cooperation with the UN tribunal despite a cut of US aid, threats of sanctions and warnings that the extradition of war crimes suspects is crucial to Serbia's EU membership bid.
The prime minister, seen a moderate nationalist, cites the tribunal's alleged bias against Serbs, although he supported the 2001 extradition to The Hague of ousted nationalist strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic, the largely symbolic leader of the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro which replaced the rump Yugoslav federation after it was disbanded last year, said cooperation with The Hague was vital and threatened to resign if Serbia turned its back on Europe.
"We have to answer whether we want Serbia and Montenegro to go towards the future or back to the past," he said after meeting Del Ponte and promising to convene a meeting of Serbian and Montenegrin leaders to discuss the matter.
"If someone decides -- and I do not believe they will -- that it is better to fight against Europe and not for Europe, then I will give up my post to someone else," he said.
Del Ponte earlier met Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic, whom she described as a "friend and an ally".
Former Serbian and Yugoslav president Milosevic, who was ousted from office in 2000, is on trial at The Hague facing more than 60 charges including genocide for his role in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.