The lawyer, Dragan Saponjic, said Mr Lilic was arrested after refusing an order to testify against his successor - Slobodan Milosevic - at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

He was president of the Yugoslav federation from 1993 to 1997, when Mr Milosevic took over.

Mr Milosevic is on trial on charges of genocide allegedly committed during the 1990s Balkans wars.

'Forced'

Mr Saponjic said Mr Lilic was subpoenaed by the tribunal to appear as a witness for the prosecution.

Milosevic gave instructions to Lilic

"Mr Lilic was presented today ... with the demand by The Hague tribunal to appear before the court," he said.

Mr Saponjic said a Belgrade court ordered Mr Lilic's arrest after he refused to surrender voluntarily.

He told the Associated Press (AP) news agency the former Yugoslav leader was "taken away" shortly after 1800 local time (1600 GMT).

Some reports suggest Mr Lilic was forcibly put on a plane to The Hague an hour later.

Mr Lilic's wife, Ljubica, confirmed that her husband was arrested.

"Zoran refused to sign anything," she told AP, "Then they took him away."

Defiant

The BBC's Matthew Price in Serbia says it has been known for some time that the former president could be asked to testify against Mr Milosevic but Mr Lilic has made it clear all along that he would refuse to do this.

This week he said he would not testify against anyone at The Hague.

As president of Yugoslavia Mr Lilic should have been senior to the then president of Serbia, Mr Milosevic, but in reality it worked the other way.

It is widely known that Mr Lilic took his instructions from Mr Milosevic and as such he is an important witness to the investigating authorities in The Hague.