Serbian President Boris Tadic has urged the European Union to do its part and give encouragement to Belgrade's bid to join the 27-nation bloc, as the Serbian authorities have arrested war crime fugitive Ratko Mladic.

"I simply ask the EU to fulfill its part. We fulfilled our part and we will continue to do so," Tadic said on May 30, in an interview to The Associated Press.

Tadic stressed that the Serbian authorities had responded immediately upon discovering the hiding place of Mladic, wartime commander of the Republika Srpska army, charged with war crimes before the Hague tribunal.

The Serbian president denied claims that Belgrade had known the site of Mladic's hideout and timed his capture to increase the country's chances of gaining EU candidate member status.

"Any such comment makes no sense. The truth is that we arrested Ratko Mladic the moment we discovered him," the Serbian president said, adding that the last fugitive wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia would be caught too.