BELGRADE, Dec. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Croatia's most wanted war crimes suspect, General Ante Gotovina, was arrested on Spain's Canary Islands, the chief UN war crimes prosecutor said here on Thursday.

    "Ante Gotovina was arrested tonight in Spain," said Carla Del Ponte, the head of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

    Del Ponte arrived in Belgrade to press the authorities there to increase efforts to arrest two other fugitive suspects, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic, charged with genocide in Bosnia in the 1990s.

    She said Gotovina was now in detention and would be transferred to The Hague, the headquarters of the ICTY.

    Gotovina, 50, has been on the run since 2001 when the UN war crimes tribunal charged him with murdering 150 Serb civilians and other crimes allegedly committed by his troops during the 1991-1995 war in Croatia.

    In Madrid, a court source said Gotovina is due to appear before a Spanish high court judge on Thursday afternoon, adding that he was likely to face proceedings to extradite him to The Hague as soon as possible.

    Spain's state radio said Gotovina was being transported to Madrid on a military plane.

    Authorities in the Canaries said he was arrested by Spanish police on Wednesday night at a hotel in the tourist resort of Playa de Las Americas. Police had been monitoring his movements for several days.

    In Brussels, the European Union (EU) and NATO welcomed Gotovina's arrest, saying Karadzic and Mladic must follow.

    NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference that the arrest of Gotovina was "good news for the world, for bringing people to justice who are not yet convicted but who are accused of very serious crimes."

    A spokesman for the British EU presidency also said the arrest would remove "an important obstacle" for Croatia's bid to join the 25-nation bloc.

    Meanwhile, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said the arrest was good news for reconciliation in the Western Balkans, urging Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina to follow Croatia's example.

    "I urge the authorities in other countries ... to step up their efforts and continue to work until full cooperation is reached and the remaining indictees ... are brought to the Hague," EU Enlargement Commissioner Ollie Rehn said.

    Croatia's failure to arrest Gotovina prompted the EU in March to suspend Zagreb's membership process. Croatia stepped up cooperation with the Hague tribunal after that and EU membership talks started in October.

    In The Hague, the ICTY's press office said preparations are under way for transferring Gotovina and the transfer will be done "as soon as possible."

    In Zagreb, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said he received the information on Gotovina's arrest earlier in the day.

    "This is an affirmation of Croatian policies ... It showed that those who trusted us were right," he said during a cabinet meeting. "The rule of law has no alternative." Enditem