(Adds EU Commission statement paragraphs 9-10)

By Olja Stanic

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia, May 31 (Reuters) - A Bosnian Serb general accused of genocide in the 1992-95 Bosnia war was arrested by Serb and Bosnian police on Thursday and due to be transferred to The Hague war crimes tribunal on Friday.

Zdravko Tolimir was a close aide of Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, one of the top fugitives wanted by the United Nations tribunal in The Hague. He is believed to be the chief logistics operative in Mladic's network of supporters.

The arrest boosts the prospects of both Serbia and Bosnia for closer ties with the European Union.

"Tolimir's transfer to The Hague is under way," said Tamara Despenic, spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic.

Tolimir is expected to arrive in the Netherlands on Friday, where he will taken to a detention centre in The Hague, a spokesman for the tribunal said.

Tolimir was arrested on the border between Serbia and Bosnia's Serb Republic, in a joint action. A Reuters correspondent saw a heavy police presence at the airport of Banja Luka, capital of the Serb Republic, and reporters were barred. A military helicopter was parked on the tarmac.

Officials said earlier Tolimir was in bad health, and some local media reported he had cancer.

The arrest comes just ahead of a visit to Serbia next week by Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, the main person the EU is likely to consult before resuming talks with Belgrade.

Serbia's talks on closer ties with the EU were frozen last year over Belgrade's failure to arrest Mladic. The EU says talks can resume if Serbia makes concrete moves to cooperate with The Hague by arresting fugitives.

European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, in a statement, welcomed the arrest as "an important step towards bringing to justice all remaining fugitives".

"Full cooperation with the (U.N. Tribunal) is not only an international obligation but also a key step to achieve lasting reconciliation in the Western Balkans region," Rehn said.

Del Ponte, who says Mladic is hiding in Serbia aided by hardliners in the army and police, wants the EU to keep pressure on Serbia by withholding talks on a so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement until more fugitives are behind bars.

ARREST COULD LEAD TO MLADIC

Tolimir's arrest leaves five ethnic Serbs still on the run, including Mladic and his political boss Radovan Karadzic.

Both men are indicted for genocide for the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, which claimed over 10,000 lives, and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.

Milorad Timotic, a retired colonel and military analyst, told Reuters Television that although Tolimir was not the top fugitive, "maybe this arrest will lead to Mladic's hideout".

Natasa Kandic, head of Serbia's Humanitarian Law Centre, said she found it difficult to believe that Mladic and Karadzic would be arrested any time soon.

Rasim Ljajic, head of Serbia's office for cooperation with The Hague, said the arrest had shown the new determination of Serb authorities.

After handing over a dozen suspects to The Hague in 2005, Serbia last year appeared to put the tribunal on the back burner. Instead it stepped up nationalist rhetoric while trying to deal with the possibility of losing its breakaway Kosovo province. (additional reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic, Ivana Sekularac, Beti Bilandzic, Harro ten Wolde)

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