SPAIN TO PUSH FOR WITHDRAWAL OF EU TROOPS FROM BOSNIA

MADRID, Spain (September 30,2008) - The Spanish Defence Minister, Carme Chacón, has announced that she will be lobbying her EU counterparts at a meeting in Touville (France) this week for the EU military mission in Bosnia (EUFOR) to become an "essentially civil" operation.

Addressing the Spanish Senate Defence Committee earlier this morning,Chacón argued that the transfer of responsibilities to the Bosnian Army is now practically complete, and that "it only remains to finalise the political reforms."

There are 321 Spanish servicemen and women deployed in Bosnia as part of a total contingent of 2,200 EU troops.
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