Rasim Ljajic, who is in charge of Serbia's co-operation with the UN war crimes tribunal, said yesterday: "The decision on the award was made by the Council for National Security late last night."

An additional 1m will apparently be paid by the Serbian government for any information on Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian-Serb former political leader who shares the indictment with Mladic for the genocide of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. But Ljajic repeated claims that Karadzic is not hiding in Serbia, which is why the government has not officially offered money for his capture.