The new arrests now bring to 10 the number of people detained in recent weeks in connection with the search for Mladic.

Serbia is also reported to have set up a telephone hotline to get information about the ex-Bosnian Serb commander.

On Wednesday, the EU halted talks on closer ties with Serbia over its failure to apprehend Mladic.

The international war crimes tribunal in The Hague has charged Mladic with genocide in connection with the wartime massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in 1995.

As the hunt for him intensified, police searched the Mladic family home in the Belgrade district of Banovo Brdo on Friday, Serbian B92 radio reported.

The house, where Mladic's son Darko lives, was blocked off by police cars and officers wearing balaclavas, Reuters news agency reported.

On Thursday, Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica said Mladic was "alone" on the run since the government had detained key people on whom he previously had relied for support.

"His entire network has been uncovered.

Mladic is now hiding all alone, " he said.

The chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunal, Carla del Ponte, said on Friday that the Serbian authorities had located him two weeks ago, but let him slip away again.

"I know that the authorities in Serbia had the possibility to arrest Mladic two or three times at the end of 2005 and in January 2006. They have not done that because they want him to voluntarily surrender, " said Del Ponte.