New charges possible against Karadzic in The Hague

United Nations prosecutors said Wednesday they plan to file a new indictment against Radovan Karadzic within days to update the eight-year-old charges against the former Bosnian Serb leader.

Prosecutor Alan Tieger told the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague that he will file a motion seeking permission to update Karadzic's 11-count indictment by next Monday at the latest.

Tieger did not indicate whether the new indictment would include more or fewer charges than the current 25-page document.

'This has to be a fair trial or no trial at all' Radovan Karadzic

New charges will almost certainly delay the beginning of the Bosnian Serbs trial.

Karadzic, 63,currently faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanityon allegations hemasterminded atrocities when he was president of the breakaway Serb republic within Bosnia, including the slaughter of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995 and the deadly siege of Sarajevo.

Will defend himself

Judge Iain Bonomy entered not guilty pleas to the 11 charges last month after Karadzic twice refused to plead.

At Wednesday's hour-long hearing, Karadzic said he was gathering evidence to back his claim that he was promised immunity from prosecution in return for disappearing from the public eye in a 1996 deal with U.S. peace envoy Richard Holbrooke a claim Holbrooke has repeatedly denied.

Bonomy told Karadzic that he and two other judges already were studying three separate motions Karadzic filed linked to his claimed immunity deal with Holbrooke and that they will issue a ruling soon.

Karadzic, clean-shaven and wearing a dark suit, tie and reading glasses, looked healthier and less tired than at his first two appearances before the tribunal.

He was arrested on a Belgrade bus in late July after 13 years on the run. At the time, he had flowing white hair and a bushy beard and was working as a new-age healer under the false name of Dr. Dragan Dabic.

On Wednesday, he again insisted he would conduct his own defence, although he said hemay have a legal adviser in court with him.

"This either has to be a fair trial or no trial at all. I have to hold the reins of my defence in my own hands," he told Bonomy.

The court is under pressure from the UN Security Council to complete its cases and close down by 2010. Karadzic's capture and looming trial mean the tribunal is sure to miss that deadline.

Prosecutors have indicted 161 suspects on war crimes charges and convicted 57. Only two indicted suspects remainatlarge Karadzic's former military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, and a one-time leader of Serbs in Croatia, Goran Hadzic.