The U.S. government will donate military equipment worth up to $6 million to the Czech army for use in foreign missions, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, an official said Friday.
The U.S. offer to help equip the Czech army, which plans to increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan, came earlier this year, Defense Ministry spokesman Jan Pejsek said.
Czech Republic has about 225 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and the government agreed in August to send a team of up to 200 troops and civilian experts to help reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.
If the decision is approved by both chambers of parliament, the team would be deployed to the province of Logar, southeast of Kabul, in early 2008.
Both sides should decide by the end of the year what equipment the Czechs could get, Pejsek said. He said light armor vehicles and navigation equipment were among options.
The donated equipment also could be also used by the country's troops deployed in Iraq, he said. Czech Republic has about 100 troops in southern Iraq who help guard a military base.