Pristina - Kosovo's former prime minister Agim Ceku was arrested for the third time on a Serbian Interpol warrant Tuesday, this time in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, a spokesman said in Pristina.

"He has been arrested and will be released in two or three hours, said the spokesman for Ceku's opposition Social Democratic Party, Gazim Kasapolli.

Ceku was presumably being held on an international warrant issued in 2002 by Serbia. He had already been arrested on the same warrant in Slovenia and Hungary in
2003 and 2004, and faced problems elsewhere, as when Columbia expelled him last year.

He was released each time without being extradited to Serbia, which wants to try him for war crimes allegedly committed by troops under his command.

Serbia issued arrest warrants for several other Kosovo Albanian leaders, including the current premier, Hashim Thaci. Ethnic Albanians are a 90-per cent majority in Kosovo.

Ceku, 59, was the top commander of the Kosovo Albanian insurgent army which fought Serbia until NATO became involved in 1999, eventually ousting Belgrade's security forces.

After nine years under a United Nations administration, Kosovo last year proclaimed independence and was recognized by leading Western powers, including the United States and most of the European Union nations, among them Bulgaria.

A career soldier who deserted the Yugoslav People's Army while serving in Croatia in 1991, he was the first commander of the fledgling defence forces and the territory's non-partisan prime minister between March 2006 and January 2008.(dpa)