Podgorica (Montenegro) (AFP) - A former Yugoslav general was arrested in Montenegro on Sunday on suspicion of having committed war crimes in the 1990s, an official source in Podgorica said.

Serbian Borislav Djukic, 66, was arrested, on a warrant issued by Croatia, at Tivat airport as he was about to board a plane for Belgrade.

He is suspected of committing war crimes between 1991 and 1993 in the former Yugoslav republic of Croatia.

Djukic appeared before a Podgorica court which placed him in detention pending extradition to Croatia.

During Croatia's 1991-1995 war of independence, part of the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia, Djukic was deputy head of the army of Croatian Serbs.

He appeared as a witness for the defence during the war crimes trials of the late Yugoslav president and Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic and former Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic.

Milosevic died in detention in The Hague in 2006, while facing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Martic was convicted of war crimes by the ICTY in 2007 and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Croatia's proclamation of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 was followed by a war between Zagreb forces and Serb secessionists backed by Belgrade.

The conflict ended in 1995 with some 20,000 people dead.