Sarajevo - The chairman of Bosnia's nationalist Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) has denied that the party gave up its founder, war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, according to a report published Thursday.

The former Bosnian Serb leader has been indicted on charges of war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and severe breaches of the Geneva Conventions by The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

"SDS never gave up Karadzic. His withdrawal from the party was only a condition for the party in order not to be banned," Mladen Bosic was quoted as saying by Banja Luka daily Nezavisne Novine.

Bosic said the initiative was created by former US diplomat Richard Holbrooke to eliminate the party from Bosnia's political landscape after the country's 1992-95 war.

"The condition was that the SDS change its statute in order to remove all those tried for the war crimes from the party's membership ... That shows that the SDS would never give up its founder if there was no pressure," Bosic said.

Bosic also confirmed Karadzic's allegations on a deal between him and Holbrooke, saying the SDS leadership was informed at that time that Karadzic would withdraw from the party following an agreement with Holbrooke in order to clear the way for the SDS to take part in the first elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the war.

Serbian authorities arrested Karadzic on July 21 in Belgrade and extradited him to The Hague.

He had been in hiding for nearly 13 years.

Bosic predicted that Karadzic would be a very troublesome witness for the international community, according to Nezavisne Novine.

Karadzic founded the SDS some 18 years ago. (dpa)