PRAGUE - The Czech government approved plans on May 16 to cut the number of its soldiers in Afghanistan in the next two years, before NATO withdraws foreign combat troops at the end of 2014.
The number of Czech troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force would fall to 539 in 2013 from 640 this year. That figure will drop to 340 in 2014, and would not exceed 150 after the NATO pullout.
The bill will now go to parliament.
A timetable agreed between NATO and Afghanistan in 2010 called for the withdrawal of foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, when Afghan security forces are supposed to have full control.
NATO leaders meet on May 20-21 in Chicago to try to agree on how to fund Afghanistan after the foreign combat troops leave.
