Washington - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's arrest shows that Serbia is committed to bringing war-crimes suspects to justice, the White House said Monday.

Karadzic played a role in "a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing" against non-Serbs and the mass murder of thousands of Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat civilians, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

The United States has pressured Serbia for years to arrest Karadzic and turn him over to the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and at times has withheld financial aid from Serbia.

"This operation is an important demonstration of the Serbian government's determination to honor its commitment to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia," Perino said.

"There is no better tribute to the victims of the war's atrocities than bringing their perpetrators to justice," she said, noting the 7,000 people massacred in 1995 in Srebrenica. (dpa)