A Serbian court has rejected a bid by the family of Europe's most wanted war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic to declare him officially dead.

The wartime Bosnian Serb army commander is sought by a U.N. war crimes tribunal on genocide charges for orchestrating the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 and other war crimes.

The family have argued that Mladic is sick and has not been seen in public since he went into hiding in 2003. They say he could not have survived this long without medical care.

Court spokeswoman Gordana Vukovic says the motion has been rejected for "procedural reasons." Vukovic says the family has not appealed the ruling.

Mladic's family lawyer was not immediately reachable on Wednesday.