A British lawyer has been appointed the stand-in counsel for Radovan Karadzic at his war crimes trial in The Hague.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Richard Harvey will act for Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, if he continued to boycott his trial when it resumes next year.

Up until now, Karadzic had been acting in own defence at his trial.

Harvey has experience at The Hague acting for war crimes suspects from Kosovo.

Marko Sladojevic, who is one of Karadzic's advisers, told The Associated Press that Karadzic will not cooperate with Harvey. Sladojevic said Karadzic will respond next week to the appointment.

On Nov. 5, the UN court said it would delay's Karadzic's trial until March, in order to give his court-appointed lawyer time to prepare.

Karadzic is charged with 11 counts of war crimes, including two counts of genocide, for allegedly masterminding atrocities during the Bosnian war, including the 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslim males in Srebrenica and the deadly siege of Sarajevo.

The trial of Karadzic is considered one of the most significant war crimes cases since the Second World War.