Karadzic faces 11 charges at the United Nations tribunal in The Hague [EPA]

Karadzic's lawyer said he sent the appeal to the court by registered mail on Friday, before a midnight deadline that day.

A court spokeswoman said on Tuesday that the appeal had still not arrived, while the postal service also said it did not have the document.

Under Serbian law, if the appeal is not filed, or if it is sent by mail but does not arrive at the Belgrade court, the court's investigative judge can rule to extradite Karadzic to The Hague tribunal in the Netherlands without considering his objection.

Looting spree

Tensions are high in Belgrade ahead of Tuesday evening's anti-government rally.

The rally's organiser, the right-wing Serbian Radical party, said it is bringing in Karadzic supporters by bus to the capital from all over Serbia and Bosnia, where Karadzic is still revered by many as a wartime hero.

On Monday, Luka Karadzic, Radovan Karadzic's brother, said: "I will use this opportunity to call on all participants of tomorrow's march to use the energy and pride of Serbia and not to succumb to provocations and that it is a peaceful protest and march."

Svetozar Vujacic, Karadzic's lawyer, has predicted the government will try to send the arrested war crimes suspect to the UN tribunal before the protest.

In February, when the ultra-nationalists organised a rally against Western countries that recognised Kosovo's independence, the United States embassy was partly burned and protesters went on a looting spree, smashing shops and McDonald's restaurants in Belgrade.

"No one has to be worried about the march. It's a democratic gathering," said Jovan Damjanovic, a Radical party lawmaker.

"The Serbian Radical party and the other political parties that come will protest in a democratic way, one which is applied in all the democratic countries, and they will point out what is wrong and what is not in the interests of this country and its people," he said.

Genocide charges

Karadzic faces 11 charges at the UN tribunal, including genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide.

He is accused of masterminding the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and the more than three-year siege of Sarajevo, which left 10,000 people dead.

Officials say the war crimes suspect was captured July 21 in Belgrade, where he lived under the assumed identity of a health guru, with a long white beard and hair, and large glasses.

His lawyer claims that Karadzic was kidnapped in a Belgrade public bus on July 18, and illegally held for three days by unknown captors.

Serbia's new, pro-Western government hopes that Karadzic's arrest will strengthen the country's bid for European Union membership.

Serbia had been accused of not searching for war crimes fugitives sought by the UN tribunal.

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