Belgrade — General Ratko Mladic will order his own bodyguards to kill him rather than allow himself to be captured and face trial at The Hague, Serbian officials believe.

The general, who is now Europe’s most wanted war crimes suspect following the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, must be handed over to international prosecutors before Serbia can be considered for membership of the European Union.

But the former army commander, who faces charges of genocide if caught, is thought to have two armed guards constantly at his side, who would be unlikely to give up without a fight.

Serbian intelligence sources quoted in the Belgrade press said hunting down Mr. Mladic was altogether a different prospect from snatching Mr. Karadzic, who was taken without a fight on a no. 73 bus in Belgrade last Friday.

“The latest analysis is that he is living in an urban environment in Serbia with two security guards who are under orders to shoot him before he is captured,” one source said. The warning came as the Belgrade government announced the first step in a diplomatic reconciliation with Western powers following the arrest of Mr. Karadzic, announcing that it would dispatch ambassadors across the European Union.

The ambassadors were withdrawn by Belgrade after major E.U. powers, including Britain, moved to recognize Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo after it declared independence in February.

The ambassadors’ return will mark a triumph for the E.U. and a swift and profound diplomatic U-turn in Belgrade, where protesters set fire to the American embassy only five months ago.

The new Serb government has now made E.U. membership its priority and is taking a pragmatic approach to relations with its wealthier neighbors.

“We are doing everything we can to get E.U. candidate status by the end of the year. Our ambassadors will be able to lobby for that,” a Serbian minister, Oliver Dulic, said yesterday.