THE HAGUE, Netherlands, It took nearly 13 years to track down and arrest Radovan Karadzic. It could take years more before his trial is completed at the United Nations Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, a judge said Tuesday.

The complexity of a case that encompasses most of the worst atrocities of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, likely legal wrangling and a packed docket at the court in The Hague all stand in the way of a speedy trial.

``Karadzic is the second most important defendant that we have had. It will not be a quick trial, but I believe it can be held as soon as possible, possibly within a few years,' tribunal judge Frederik Harhoff of Denmark told Danish TV2 News.

Karadzic has been given a copy of his lengthy indictment and has been interviewed by an investigating judge. That paved the way for a Serbian judge to order 63-year-old Karadzic's extradition, but his lawyer Sveta Vujacic said he will appeal that decision. Vujacic has three days to file the appeal.

The 11 charges include genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide for allegedly masterminding the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

Tribunal officials in The Hague still have no clear idea exactly when they will take custody of their most-wanted fugitive.

``We simply have no details' about a possible transfer timetable, prosecution spokeswoman Olga Karvan said. ``We expect him soon.'

Vujacic has suggested that Karadzic was illegally detained; a formal complaint filed in a Serbian court could also hold up his move to The Hague.

But once he does arrives, Karadzic will be rushed amid tight security, possibly in a military helicopter, to the tribunal's detention unit inside a Dutch jail close to the North Sea coast. The block can hold up to 82 prisoners awaiting or on trial. Convicted defendants are sent to prisons in other countries to serve their sentences.

Karadzic will take up residence in a cell in the same block where his political mentor, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, died in 2006 shortly before the end of his genocide trial.

The first time the public will get a chance to see Karadzic, who has grown a shock of white hair and matching long white beard during his years on the run, will be within days of his arrival, when he must appear in court for a brief arraignment-style hearing known as an initial appearance. At this hearing, judges will ask him to enter pleas to the charges against him, though he may delay his plea by up to 30 days.

If he refuses, the court automatically enters not guilty pleas on his behalf.

In the past, the court has sometimes released suspects, under strict conditions, after their initial appearance so that they can await trial in their home country.

However, in the case of such a high-profile suspect facing such serious charges, there is virtually no chance Karadzic would be allowed to return home.

The tribunal hailed Karadzic's arrest as a ``milestone in the development of international law and further fulfilment of the tribunal's mandate to bring to justice the most senior persons alleged to be most responsible for war crimes in the Yugoslav conflicts.'

Karadzic's arrest came just one month after Serbian authorities arrested another long-sought fugitive, former Bosnian Serb police chief Stojan Zupljanin, who had evaded arrest for eight years.

Although the UN Security Council is pressing the court to complete its cases and shut down in 2010, Harhoff said the tribunal will stay open until the last fugitive has been tried.

Its last remaining two fugitives are Karadzic's military chief, general Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, a senior Bosnian Serb official.

``When the last man has been convicted, we will shut down the tribunal,' he said. ``Now it can be that the deadline that we have set can be extended a bit in light of Karadzic's arrest.'

Amnesty International also called for more time.

``The UN Security Council must review the arbitrary deadline of 2010 set for the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to complete its cases,' the rights group said in a statement.

``The court must be given the necessary time to process all these cases,' it added.