The man in charge of tracking down Ratko Mladic believes that he could have Europe’s most wanted war crimes fugitive under lock and key by Christmas.

Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia’s chief war crimes prosecutor, said that good progress had been made in his investigation, which has resulted in several police raids in recent weeks as speculation grows in the national media about the net closing on the genocide suspect.

Mr Vukcevic told The Times that he dreams about catching the man wanted for the Srebrenica massacre, when around 7,000 Muslim men and boys were systematically murdered by Bosnian Serb forces under his command in 1995 during the bitter Yugoslav ethnic conflict.

He also admitted that he feels immense political pressure, with Serbia's progress towards the EU on hold until it hands the former Bosnian Serb army general to the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Serbia's accession to the EU depends on "full co-operation" with the ICTY, which most European governments believe has now been demonstrated by the Government of its pro-EU President Boris Tadic.

Under previous governments, Mladic was free to walk the streets but he has not been seen publicly since 2005. Politics in Serbia has changed dramatically in the past couple of years and now the Socialist Party of the former leader and war crimes defendant Slobodan Milosevic is in the pro-EU Government, while the anti-EU opposition Radicals have split and its former President, Tomislav Nikolic, has formed a new pro-EU party.

One EU member state stands resolutely in Serbia's path — the Netherlands will block the process until Mladic is delivered. Outnumbered Dutch UN peacekeepers failed to intervene while Mladic's murderers rounded up Muslims in Srebrenica, a traumatic episode deeply etched on the national psyche, and it is politically impossible for a Dutch minister to accept that Serbia is co-operating with the tribunal unless it arrests the fugitive.

But despite a $5 million (£3 million) ransom put up by the US Government, he remains at large, reputedly protected by a cadre of loyal bodyguards.

“We have to finish this by the end of the year. The Government is determined to finish the Hague story,” said Mr Vukcevic in his office in the Serb capital, a few doors down from where Radovan Karadzic was initially interrogated after the capture of the former Bosnian Serb leader last year.

For political reasons, Mr Vukcevic has no choice but to agree with assertions by Rasim Ljajic, the minister in charge of co-operation with the Hague, that Mladic will be caught this year. It has only fuelled speculation that senior Serb figures know full well where Mladic is located and are just picking an opportune moment to arrest him, something Mr Vukcevic strongly denies.

"We are keeping an open mind on his location because we have not found him and we don't know here he is," he said. "If we claimed we knew where he was, it would rightly be asked why we have not caught him."

For a man under such intense pressure to deliver results soon, Mr Vukcevic seems very relaxed. He looks more like a James Bond villain with his grey goatee beard, deep tan and twinkling eyes. Certainly his sleep has improved since Karadzic was found living in Belgrade in disguise as an alternative faith healer.

“I dream about catching Mladic," said Mr Vukcevic, who revealed that he had Karadzic followed for a month before the arrest was made, possibly to check if his support network was linked to Mladic. "I used to dream about him and Karadzic and it is interesting but I have not had any dreams about Karadzic recently. I just dream about Mladic now.”

“We have tips every day and we check them all," he said. "There is huge pressure because the whole country's future is being held hostage because of him. But the political will is really there now because Boris Tadic has said that all Hague indictees must be arrested — while [Vojislav] Kostunica was Prime Minister, he never said such a thing."

Mr Vukcevic is convinced that, despite all kinds of rumours, Mladic is alive. “His family would probably be acting differently if he was not still alive. They do not seem in any kind of mourning, I think this would be noticed.”

He knows that nothing less than his country's reputation on the international stage is at stake. "We have to relieve the Serbian people of collective responsibility by establishing the individual responsibility of those who have been hiding behind the people and playing some kind of heroes, when in fact they have committed serious crimes."

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