The other participants are Italian and Slovenian troops, Szerekes told MTI after the meeting. Hungary will also extend by six months the mission of its unit monitoring training missions in Iraq, which expire in February 2008, Szerekes added.

On a different subject, Szerekes said his Russian counterpart Anatoliy Serdyukov would visit Budapest on Friday, to discuss the Russian standpoint on the recent changes in US missile shield plans in Eastern Europe, on the conventional weapons disarmament process and other military issues. (serbianna)