Bulgaria will send a further 317 military personnel to Afghanistan in June 2007, Defence Minister Vesselin Bliznakov said.

They will join 83 other Bulgarian soldiers already on duty in Afghanistan, Bulgarian news agency BTA said.

Bliznakov said that Nato had decided at its summit in Latvia in November 2006 that all its members should increase the number of their troops in Afghanistan to stabilise the country.

This was why the number of Bulgarian soldiers would be increased to 400. In this way Bulgaria was fulfilling its obligations to take part in peacekeeping missions and in the fight against world terrorism, Bliznakov said.

Bulgaria’s soldiers will be sent to Kandahar and Kabul.