More British troops off to Kosovo

Some 600 British troops are being deployed to Kosovo UK military deployments worldwide

A battalion of 600 British troops will be sent to Kosovo, Defence Secretary Des Browne has announced.

It follows a Nato request for extra soldiers to maintain public order.

The UK is responsible for providing the body's standby reserve force for the first six months of this year.

The soldiers, from 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, will be deployed to Kosovo from the end of May for one month to help Nato with peacekeeping activities.

There are currently 150 British troops working in Kosovo.

'Violence'

The announcement comes in response to a Nato request to deal with violence between Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and its minority Serbian population.

Mr Browne said in a written statement: "The security situation has remained tense and there have been some sporadic incidents of violence."

2nd Battalion, The Rifles, based in Ballykinler, Northern Ireland, have been specially trained in riot control for the deployment.

The deployment of the UK ORF battalion confirms yet again the professionalism of our armed forces Des Browne, defence secretary

Their commanding officer, Lt Col Rob Thomson told the BBC his men would be seeking to reassure the local Kosovan population by conducting foot patrols and confronting any violent extremists.

Overstretch?

The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says this latest deployment has prompted suggestions of overstretch within the Army.

Our correspondent said the Ministry of Defence had denied this saying the battalion had long been earmarked for just such a mission.

But he said it was a sign of just how many overseas commitments the Army now has that 2 Rifles had only recently recuperated from operations in Basra.

Before that, they were in Bosnia, Iraq again, Sierra Leone, and Kosovo in 2005.

Maj Gen Patrick Cordingly - commander of the Desert Rats during the first Gulf War - told the BBC that current levels of activity could not be sustained for long, with 13,000 personnel deployed on operations around the world.

"The problem is sustaining the number of particularly soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and indeed pilots from the Royal Air Force," he said.

"I know that 13,000 doesn't sound a large proportion out of the whole of the size of the Army and the air force, but it's one of wearing down, how long can you actually keep it going for?"

There is a long standing commitment by the UK, in rotation with Italy and Germany, to provide a UK battalion, if required, to the Nato/EU shared pan-Balkans Operational Reserve Force (ORF).

Defence Secretary Des Browne said: "I would like to stress that the deployment of the UK ORF battalion confirms yet again the professionalism of our armed forces and their ability to provide essential military support at short notice."

The government of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February.

Since then it has approved a new constitution for the country which will come into force June.