Hadzic, 52, will be taken to a UN detention facility where he will be given a medical examination and a copy of the 14-count indictment for crimes committed in a breakaway region of Croatia during the 1991-95 war, including the massacre of some 200 Croat prisoners of war.

The extradition of Hadzic started after Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic signed the extradition warrant. Earlier today, Malovic told a news conference in Belgrade that the extradition of Hadzic to the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague had been launched and that he was on a plane to the Netherlands.

The extradition of the wartime leader of Croatia's Serbs and a suspected war criminal started after Malovic signed the extradition warrant. Hadzic and his attorney had previously waived the right to appeal a Belgrade court's decision that conditions for his extradition had been met.

Hadzic was arrested on Wednesday near the village of Krusedol in Vojvodina, after which he was transferred to a detention unit of the special court in Belgrade.

The convoy carrying Hadzic stopped in the northern city of Novi Sad and a heavy police presence blocked the streets near the family home as Hadzic went in to see his 86-year-old mother, who is said to be bedridden. He stayed there for about an hour.

According to unofficial information, Hadzic also visited his father's grave at the local cemetery.

From Novi Sad he was transported directly to Nikola Tesla airport in Belgrade where he boarded a plane to The Hague.

"This marked the end of the most difficult chapter in cooperation with the ICTY," the minister said, adding that by doing so Serbia had met its biggest obligation. By arresting the last ICTY fugitive, Serbia showed consistency and dedication to the respect of laws and principles of international justice, the minister added.

Hadzic was indicted for crimes against humanity during the 1991-95 Croatian war.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted the former president of the self-styled Serb republic of Krajina in Croatia in July 2004 on 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1991-1995 conflict.

He is charged with a number of crimes committed in eastern Slavonia, including murder and persecution of the Croat and non-Serb civilian population, prolonged imprisonment of civilians in detention facilities where torture, beatings and killing were not uncommon, forcible transfer of tens of thousands of non-Serbs from across the area under his control to make it part of a new Serb-dominated state.

Hadzic, 52, is also indicted for a massacre at the Ovcara farm outside Vukovar, where 250 Croats taken from the town hospital were executed in 1991.

The ICTY said yesterday that Hadzic's transfer to The Hague would pose no problems, regardless of the fact that the UN war crimes tribunal will be on summer recess.

The tribunal is in recess as of next week, but a lot of staff are still here, including judges. The tribunal is open, and although there will be no hearings, the ICTY is prepared to take custody of Goran Hadzic, a source close to the tribunal told press