Belgrade - The Serbian official in charge of pursuing alleged war criminals said he would resign at the end of the year if Belgrade fails to arrest the fugitive Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, wanted for a genocide trial, the daily Blic reported Thursday.

"In that case, it would have been my false presumption, for which I would have to bear consequences," Rasim Ljajic, the coordinator of the team tasked with capturing Mladic, said.

As the Serb military chief of during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, Mladic is held responsible for atrocities such as the massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica and shelling and sniping of Sarajevo.

Wanted by The Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal since 1995, he has remained at large in Serbia - his prolonged run from justice blocking the country's path to European Union membership.

Ljajic, who also serves as the Serbian labour and welfare minister, pledged to have Mladic caught before 2009 expires, basing his "optimism on knowledge of activities conducted for the arrest."

Mladic is one of the two remaining fugitives from the UN tribunal hiding in Serbia and by far the most wanted. The other one is Goran Hadzic, a leader of Serbs during their 1991-95 insurgency in Croatia. (dpa)