``This date will probably not be confirmed officially until the start of next week," the press office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said Thursday, however.

At his initial appearance before the court, General Talic, the Republika Srpska's Army Chief of staff, will have the opportunity to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to the charges against him.

He could face life imprisonment if convicted.

Talic was indicted by the ICTY's chief prosecutor Louise Arbour on March 12 on charges of crimes against humanity for his role in the "ethnic cleansing" of Muslims and Bosnian Croats in the region of Krajina, on the border of Bosnia and Croatia, during the 1992-1995 conflict.

However, this indictment was "sealed" and kept secret, along with an unspecifiednumber of other indictments which the ICTY has kept confidential in order to facilitate the arrest of alleged war criminals.

Talic was arrested in Vienna on Wednesday in a surprise move while attending a seminar on Bosnian military cooperation jointly sponsored by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Austrian government.

He was later flown to the Netherlands and handed over to the ICTY, where he is being held at the tribunal's detention centre in The Hague.

Following the arrest, a six-strong Bosnian Serb delegation headed by Defence Minister Manojilo Milanovic left Vienna, according to the Austrian Defence Academy.