In an interview with the Montenegrin daily Republika of Tuesday, Hartmann underlined it would be good if Karadzic and his Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic surrendered or were arrested before the July 11 anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre.
In yesterday's issue, Republika quoted "a known and respected diplomat" as saying that special British intelligence agents from Dubrovnik and Herceg Novi were tightening the grip around Gotovina and Karadzic. Hartmann said she did not want to comment on any information in the media.
She went on to say that the Hague tribunal supported every operation leading to the arrest of 10 runaway indictees and that she expected them to be arrested by the end of the year.
Hartmann said that if Karadzic and Mladic were not brought to The Hague by year's end, chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte would reveal why they were not arrested.
The spokeswoman said she was not familiar with information about negotiations with the tribunal's indictees.