ZAGREB, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said Tuesday his country would block a key aid and trade pact between Serbia and the European Union until the arrest of genocide suspect Ratko Mladic.

'I would like to underscore that the Euro-Atlantic perspective also for Serbia is of the utmost importance ... So therefore if they arrest Mladic and they deliver, then we will deliver,' Verhagen told journalists.

Mladic, 66, is wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for genocide and war crimes during Bosnia's 1992-1995 conflict during which he led Bosnian Serb army.

Mladic, believed to be hiding in Belgrade, was charged notably over the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim males in Srebrenica. The massacre in the eastern Bosnian town is the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

His co-accused, the Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, was arrested in Belgrade in July.

Serbia signed in April a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU, seen as the first step towards membership in the 27-nation bloc.

However, the text has not gone into effect pending Belgrade's full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Most of EU member countries favor the immediate implementation of the interim agreement.

But, an unanimous agreement is required for even the interim deal and the Dutch, host of The Hague court, are determined to see Mladic delivered first.

Verhagen, in a one-day visit to Croatia, stressed there was 'no need to have other position in relation to the stabilisation and association agreement as we have agreed upon,' that to unblock the SAA with Serbia, Mladic had to be captured and delivered to The Hague.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said earlier he hoped the agreement could be unblocked when the group's foreign ministers next meet in Luxembourg on October 13.