"I apologise to everyone against whom crimes were committed in the name of the Serbian people," Tadic said on Monday in Sarajevo where he began his three-day official visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Addressing reporters after his meeting with Bosnia's three-man presidency, Tadic said that criminals should not be equated with the entire people, because it was individuals who were always responsible for crimes and the responsibility of those individuals should be exactly established.
Tadic added that there had also been victims among the Serbs, and those victims also deserved apologies.
"If it should start with apologies, I am here," Tadic told reporters.
The Serbian president said the punishment of war criminals and cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the forme Yugoslavia (ICTY) remained priorities of his country's authorities "as this is in the best interest of the Serbian people".
The processing of war crimes is, according to him a basic condition for reconciliation among peoples who live in the area of ex-Yugoslavia.
Borislav Paravac, the Serb member of the Bosnian presidency and its current chairman, said that during the talks with Tadic it had been agreed that cooperation of Serbian authorities as well as authorities in the Bosnian Serb entity with the ICTY was satisfactory.
Tadic and his hosts in Sarajevo also discussed bilateral economic cooperation.
After Croatia, which is the first partner of Bosnia in foreign trade, the state union of Serbia-Montenegro is ranked second. The trade between Bosnia and this state union is currently producing a great deficit on the Bosnian side. Therefore Tadic proposed the strengthening of bilateral industrial cooperation and joint ventures on third markets.
During his stay in Sarajevo, Tadic also held talks with the international community's High Representative to Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, the Bosnian defence minister, Nikola Radovanovic and the Prime Minister of the Croat-Muslim entity (the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina), Ahmet Hadzipasic.
On Tuesday, Tadic is visiting Banja Luka, and on Wednesday he is travelling to Mostar.
Before his visit to Banja Luka, the Serbian president gave an interview to the local daily 'Nezavisne Novine'.
In the interview he confirmed that Ratko Mladic, a war crimes indictee, was receiving a pension from the army of Serbia-Montenegro, just as were all officers of the Bosnian Serb entity, the Republic of Srpska.
Commenting on the fact that Mladic, who is on the run, can receive the army pension, Tadic explained that the pension was "an acquired right and this right is not abolished when the recipient is in jail".
Tadic assumes that Mladic's pension is actually taken over by somebody from his family, and added that "members of the Mladic family would have the right to the pension, even when he would be convicted of war crimes".
The Serbian President reiterated that he did not know the whereabouts of Mladic and that he believed that this fugitive, wanted by the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal, was hiding by frequently moving from Bosnia to Serbia and vice versa.