UN prosecutors and judges are likely to seek a speedy trial following the arrest of Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic, to avoid the lengthy proceedings that have dogged the Hague tribunal in the past.
After more than a decade on the run, Mr Karadzic, (63), was arrested near Belgrade yesterday and will now face charges of genocide related to Europe's worst atrocities since World War Two.
The former Bosnian Serb leader accused of war atrocities during Bosnia's 1992-5 war, was arrested nearthe Serbian capital posing as a doctor of alternative medicine, sporting long hair, a beard and glasses to hide his face.
Serbian officials said he was walking freely around town and earned money from practising medicine.
Following his arrest, Mr Karadzic is expected to be moved later this week to the Netherlands to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), created 15 years ago to prosecute crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnia war.
Experts said prosecutor Serge Brammertz and his team of lawyers were expected to avoid a marathon like the trial that ended prematurely two years ago with the death in custody of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.
During Milosevic's four-year trial, prosecutors called nearly 300 witnesses, with an annual budget that at times ran to more than $270 million.
Critics also say judges, in hoping to demonstrate the fairness of the court by allowing Mr Milosevic to represent himself, inadvertently gave the former leader a platform to advance his political views and disrupt proceedings.
The tribunal is due to start its summer recess next week but officials said any necessary proceedings, such as an initial appearance, would be held with one judge remaining on stand-by.
The ICTY, the first war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials held in the aftermath of World War Two, has indicted 161 people and currently has custody of 37 indicted war criminals.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana today said the arrest of the man wanted for planning and ordering Europe's worst atrocities since World War Two showed Belgrade was willing to cooperate fully with the UN war crimes court in The Hague.
That was the precondition set by EU states in April for implementing a deal on closer ties with Serbia, putting it fully on track to ultimate membership of the bloc.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn called on the bloc to allow Serbia to enjoy improved trading conditions, insisting Belgrade must have something to show for the step.
But some countries at the EU foreign ministers' meeting today, including the Netherlands, were reserved about the idea.
Several stressed that Mr Karadzic's wartime military commander, Ratko Mladic, also wanted for genocide, was still at large.
"We've been waiting for this for 13 years," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the presidency of the 27-nation EU.
"Things will be easier, but let's not prejudge anything ... Karadzic has been arrested but Mladic has not."
Mr Karadzic and Mr Mladic were indicted for genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which some 8,000 unarmed Bosnian Muslim males were murdered and bulldozed into mass graves.
Mr Karadzic, a former psychiatrist, made negotiation virtually impossible through his policy of denying facts that stared everyone else in the face.
In his version of events, ethnic cleansing and the killing fields of Srebrenica simply did not exist, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He also dismissed reports that he and his family lived a life of luxury as the country disintegrated, despite visibly enjoying the trappings of wealth.
The EU signed a long-delayed Stabilisation and Association (SAA) pact with Serbia in April but vowed not to ratify it or unlock its trade benefits until all 27 member states agreed that Belgrade was complying fully with the UN war crimes tribunal.
In a statement issued after the talks today, the EU reaffirmed statements that Serbia could still "accelerate its progress towards the EU" but gave no timeframe for winning candidate status -- the next rung on the ladder which Belgrade wants to secure as early as the end of this year.
EU-Serbia ties are further complicated by the standoff over Kosovo, whose Western-backed secession in February was opposed by Serbian politicians across the spectrum.
Additional reporting: Reuters, PA