Steps are being taken to speed up the forthcoming trial of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic on genocide and war crimes charges, prosecutor Serge Brammertz has said.

He said the charge sheet had been amended to shorten the trial's length. Gen Mladic is in UN custody in The Hague and is due to make his initial court appearance on Friday.

He is accused of atrocities committed during the 1990s Bosnian war, including the massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica.

Several war crimes trials at UN courts in The Hague have taken many years.

Asked how long the whole process could take, Mr Brammertz told reporters: "It is very difficult to say how long it will last.

"The problem will not be the prosecution, we have our updated charge sheet ready, it will be a question of how long the defence needs to prepare their case."

Mr Brammertz hailed Gen Mladic's arrest last Thursday in the village of Lazarevo, north of Belgrade, after 16 years on the run.

"His arrest confirms that no-one can count on impunity for war crimes," he said. "He is charged with crimes that shocked the conscience of the international community."

He thanked the president of Serbia and the country's security services for the arrest of Gen Mladic. But he said the detention of another key war crimes suspect, former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic, should go ahead "without further delay".

Isolation cell

Gen Mladic was admitted to the UN detention unit in The Hague on Tuesday.

He was flown to the Dutch city after a Serbian court rejected an appeal against his extradition. His lawyer had argued he was too ill to be tried, but Serbian doctors said he was fit enough to be extradited.

Upon his arrival, a spokeswoman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said tribunal staff handed Gen Mladic his indictment and explained the rules and procedures to him.(bbc)