London - The British government has hailed the arrest of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic as "good news" that will open up a brighter future for Serbia in Europe.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement early Tuesday: "This arrest will help close the region's decades of conflict, and pave the way for a brighter, European future for Serbia and the region."

Stockholm - Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt Tuesday welcomed the arrest of indicted Bosnian Serb war-crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

"This is very good news," Bildt said in a statement released by the foreign ministry, lauding the new Serbian government for showing its will "to live up to its international and European commitments."

Bildt said he hoped Karadzic will soon be brought to trial.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store attending talks in Geneva aimed at reviving the World Trade Organization's Doha Round also welcomed the news of the arrest.

Belgrade - The Serbian general public reacted Tuesday with shock and disbelief to the news that Bosnian Serb wartime leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic has been arrested.

"I can't believe it. I though he was dead or that he will die hiding," said 30-year-old Maja who didn't want to give her last name. "I'm so shocked."

Serbia authorities on Monday night said they arrested Radovan Karadzic, one of the top two Balkan war crimes suspects.

Karadzic's lawyer Svetozar Vujacic told Beta news agency that Karadzic was arrested on Friday night in the capital Belgrade and was held "in some room" until Monday with "a hat on his head" so he couldn't see who arrested him.

Washington - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's arrest shows that Serbia is committed to bringing war-crimes suspects to justice, the White House said Monday.

Karadzic played a role in "a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing" against non-Serbs and the mass murder of thousands of Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat civilians, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

The United States has pressured Serbia for years to arrest Karadzic and turn him over to the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and at times has withheld financial aid from Serbia.

Belgrade - Serbia's parliament Monday suspended for two weeks debate on a pre-membership treaty with the European Union after days of filibustering by the hardline nationalist opposition.

Parliament speaker Slavica Djukic Dejanovic called for the pause in hopes that Serbia's governing pro-Western coalition and the opposition can negotiate an end to the impasse over the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA).

Ratifying the SAA is needed for Serbia to move toward the EU and Belgrade's goal of obtaining candidate status in 2009, although Brussels conditioned its approval on full Serb cooperation with the Hague-based UN war crimes.

Belgrade - Serbia will ask the United States to extradite an 86-year-old