NATO forces hunt Karadzic aides

An SFOR soldier guards the entrance to a German peacekeepers' camp in Celebici

CELEBICI, Bosnia -- NATO is widening its search for those aiding the U.N.'s most wanted war crimes suspect, Radovan Karadzic.

Troops from the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) were checking vehicles and passengers on Thursday after setting up blocks on roads to Montenegro, and others were continuing to search remote areas of Bosnia for a second day.

The move by NATO is part of its stepped-up campaign to bring the wartime Bosnian Serb leader and genocide suspect to trial at The Hague in the Netherlands.

The military alliance is targeting people who have enabled one of the world's most wanted men to remain a fugitive for almost seven years following the 1992-95 war.

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SFOR's searches come a day after its forces swooped on Celebici, the eastern village where they failed to seize Karadzic in raids in February and March. (Karadzic profile)

SFOR spokesman Major Scott Lundy told the UK's Sky News: "We are targeting the people who feed, shelter and help Karadzic flee from justice.

"We are locating the paths and routes he uses and looking for new information to confirm his location -- he will be the first to find out if we pinpoint him.

"But this operation is firmly focussed on his support network, and by the end we aim to have a larger and clearer picture of it."

The action in southeastern Bosnia is expected to last several days.

Karadzic has twice been indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for genocide during Europe's worst military conflict since World War Two, in which more than 200,000 people died.

Karadzic: The U.N.'s most wanted war crimes suspect

He is widely believed to be hiding in the eastern part of Bosnia or in neighbouring Montenegro, Serbia's smaller partner in the Yugoslav federation, Reuters news agency said.

Karadzic remains popular among nationalist Serbs, especially in the east Bosnian region, which is still politically controlled by hardliners.

Human rights activists have criticised NATO for failing to capture Karadzic and his wartime military chief, Ratko Mladic.

In July, peacekeepers swooped on Karadzic's family house in the mountain town of Pale near Sarajevo.

The U.N. tribunal has indicted the two men for the 1995 massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern town of Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo, in which more than 10,000 people died.