Hiding behind a white beard and glasses, Radovan Karadzic was living a new life practising alternative medicine when he was finally arrested.

The man hunted for more than 10 years on two UN indictments of genocide had apparently been freely wandering the streets of Belgrade in his new identity, helped by false papers.

But today he was behind bars in the city, waiting for the almost-inevitable transfer to the UN war crimes court in The Hague, where he will face trial for genocide.

A judge finished interrogating Karadzic and issued the order for his extradition.

Karadzic, 63, a trained psychiatrist, has three days to appeal against the ruling. His lawyer said he intends to do so. Accused with masterminding the deadly siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Karadzic had topped the tribunal's most-wanted list for more than a decade.

His whereabouts had been a mystery, with his hideouts reportedly including monasteries and mountain caves in remote eastern Bosnia.

He was a regular contributor to Belgrade's "Healthy Life" magazine whose editor Goran Kojic, said he was shocked when he saw the photo of Karadzic on TV.

It was reported British and US intelligence helped trap Karadzic. They co-operated with Serbian intelligence services, using both signals and human intelligence to track him down.

Sveta Vujacic, Karadzic's lawyer, said his client was in good spirits, but was not co-operating with police.

The capture of Radovan Karadzic has raised expectations that fellow fugitive General Ratko Mladic could soon join him behind bars.

Serbian authorities made a startling disclosure in describing the arrest of Karadzic - they stumbled across him while searching for Mladic.

Karadzic's wartime military commander, Mladic was a far more brazen figure who reportedly made daring forays into Belgrade.

Just hours before the Srebrenica massacre, Mladic handed out sweets to Muslim children rounded up at the town's square and consoled them that all would be fine - even patting one child on the head.

That sinister image is forever imprinted in the minds of survivors.