Czech Republic unlikely to send troops to Lebanon

The Czech Republic is unlikely to send troops to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon due to lack of finances, the country's defense minister said Tuesday. The mission to Lebanon "is not planned, we don't have financial means allocated for it," Jiri Sedivy told Czech news radio. He said a several-month deployment in Lebanon would cost up to 100 million koruna (€3.5 million; US$4.5 million), which his ministry does not have. Sedivy said that the other international peacekeeping operations the Czech soldiers participate in were his priorities.