February 10, 2007 4:17 AM

PALE, Bosnia-Herzegovina-NATO troops and a local Bosnian law enforcement agency on Saturday searched the home of an alleged supporter of war-crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic.

About 10 NATO vehicles were seen surrounding a house in Pale, 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of Sarajevo.

"We are at the house of Radomir Kojic. We believe that he is intimately involved in the support network of Radovan Karadzic," said Derek Chappel, the spokesman for NATO in Bosnia.

The NATO troops were joined by Bosnia's special police, Chappel said, adding that any evidence found would be handed over to Bosnian investigators, although investigators from the U.N. international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, were also present at the site.

"We came here early in the morning and found five people in the house. There has been no resistance, they are cooperating," Chappel said.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, along with his former general Ratko Mladic, tops the list of suspects wanted for alleged war crimes committed in former Yugoslavia. Both were indicted in 1995 by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for genocide and other crimes, but they remain at large thanks to a network of supporters who keep financing and otherwise facilitating their hiding.

Mladic is believed to be hiding in Serbia, while for some time nobody has been sure where Karadzic is hiding.

"NATO is still fully engaged in this mission to support the tribunal," Chappel said.

"The issue of Karadzic and Mladic and their support network is even more important now that Bosnia-Herzegovina is closer to NATO," he said.

Both Bosnia and Serbia last year joined NATO's program Partnership for Peace, which is seen as a step toward full NATO membership.