NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told journalists he had asked the Czech Republic to send 32 military medics and 19 air force instructors to Afghanistan. Rasmussen said instructors could train Afghan soldiers and the rest should work in two clinics.

Though the NATO chief has got some nods from the government figures and centre-right ODS party leader Jiri Topolanek, it is not probable that the Czech contingent would be reinforced, at least for the time being.

Czech lower house of Parliament which has the decisive say about sending troops abroad has approved only 535 military personnel for the Afghan mission for 2010, and this number cannot be increased without at least some support from leftist and centre- leftist parties.

And Czech Social Democratic leader Jiri Paroubek said Friday his party rejected any numerical increase of the Czech troops in Afghanistan. Still, he signaled willingness to talk about the structural changes of the contingent, i.e. to send these specialist instead of other soldiers or policemen now deployed there.

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer told press conference Friday he cannot foretell the result of such vote in Parliament, as the election campaigning in the country is quite tense.

Rasmussen stressed in Prague, NATO needs an additional reinforcement of alliance's troops. But Czech voters do not consider this pressing enough.