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PRAGUE - NATO's top military man said on Thursday that the alliance would send an additional 9,000 troops to the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and was considering cutting its 33,000-strong force in Bosnia by a third.
Speaking during a visit to the Czech Republic, Admiral Guido Venturoni said NATO military planners had decided to raise the size of the Kosovo force to around 55,000 troops from the current level of 46,000.
"We expect the contribution of NATO countries and also of partners," Venturoni, who is chairman of NATO's military committee, told journalists after meeting Czech army officials.
He did not specify when the additional troops would be sent and which countries were to provide soldiers, or why the change was needed. He added that several countries had yet to fulfil pledges for troops to the current Kosovo mission.
Venturoni said defense ministers would discuss a plan to reduce the Bosnian force by a third at a late-September meeting of NATO in Toronto.
Venturoni said he was visiting the Czech Republic, a new NATO member with about 600 peacekeeping troops in Bosnia and 120 in Kosovo, because he wanted to introduce himself after taking over the post from German General Klaus Naumann in May.