The Hague  - Former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Tuesday afternoon for a so-called pre-trial conference.

Tuesday's hearing at the United Nations-sponsored tribunal in The Hague marks the final preparation for the actual trial, for which a tentative date of October 19 has been set.

During the final phase, judges' authorities are expanded. Among others, the court is theoretically authorized to order the prosecution to reduce its number of charges.

In the last several months, judges have repeatedly requested the prosecution to limit the number of charges against the former Bosnian-Serb leader.

The court wants to avoid a situation like that with the case against former Serb president Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic, also accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, died on 11 March 2006, five years into his trial.

So far, the prosecution against Karadzic has however made only slight adjustments to the indictment.

Karadzic has been indicted on 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, including two counts of genocide, during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

Karadzic, alongside Ratko Mladic, the Serb military chief during the Bosnian war, is held responsible for crimes including the slaughter at Srebrenica and the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo.

He spent 13 years on the run before his arrest. Mladic remains at large. (dpa)