By Nick Hawton BBC News, Sarajevo

Nato troops used the raid to search for information

Mr Karadzic, who has been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, has been on the run for the past eight years.

A Nato spokesman said they were looking for information relating to where he might be hiding.

The "successful" operation involved dozens of American troops from their base in northern Bosnia.

Their target: the Karadzic household in the town of Pale, a few kilometres from Sarajevo.

Members of the family were questioned and items were taken away for further examination.

Evasive

Nato spokesman Derek Chapel said this was not an attempt to arrest Mr Karadzic, but an attempt to gain information as to his whereabouts. He said the raid had been successful.

Mr Karadzic was the political leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the three-and-a-half year Bosnian war during the early 1990s. He has been charged with genocide by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

This is not the first time the Karadzic house in Pale has been raided. It has become almost a regular exercise by peacekeepers.