Cabinet unanimously approves defence ministry plan for army reforms

The Czech cabinet has unanimously approved a defence ministry plan outlining key reforms that will see the army streamlined to just 30, 000 professional soldiers, while compulsory military service will be abolished by the end of 2004. With the Czech Republic a member of NATO the army will also focus on several specialisations in the future, including the fight against weapons of mass destruction, the military health care sector, and passive surveillance. In other areas the Czech military will have to rely on support from allied forces. The reforms also propose that in the near future the army will abandon unneeded bases in certain Czech towns, a move that has been criticised by local municipal councils. But, the government has previously agreed that it will compensate those towns from a total sum of 350 million crowns.