Amsterdam - Former Bosnian-Serb president Radovan Karadzic was due to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague Monday afternoon in a new preliminary hearing.

The extra preliminary hearing was necessary to approve a revised indictment against Karadzic.

Last Thursday, the prosecution of the UN court finally transferred the translation of all documents to the former Bosnian-Serb leader.

The prosecution had completed the new indictment already in September, but the translation of all underlying evidence was not finished until last week.

After the court approves the revised indictment, Karadzic has two weeks to study the documents and respond.

Then, the court will take a similar period to study both the indictment as well as the former Bosnian-Serb leader's response, following which another preliminary hearing will take place.

The ICTY has repeatedly complained about the slow progress in the legal proceedings against Karadzic.

Radovan Karadzic was the Bosnian Serb political leader who, alongside the military chief Ratko Mladic, is held responsible for crimes such as the slaughter of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 and the shelling of Sarajevo during the war that started in 1992.

He was arrested in Belgrade in July 2008 after 13 years on the run from justice and swiftly extradited to ICTY, where he faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Mladic is still at large.

Karadzic has appeared before the court in pre-trial hearings. The trial proper is not expected to start for several more months. (dpa)