PRAGUE, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Baska and Foreign Minister Jan Kubis visited Afghanistan on Thursday, following Slovakia's decision to send more soldiers to the country, Czech news agency CTK reported Friday

    The ministers visited the Slovak troops within the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in the Afghan province of Uruzgan, said the report.

    They also met Afghan President Hamid Karzai during their visit, which ends Friday.

    Slovakia has decided to send a new 35-member patrolling unit totake charge of the Tarin Kut base under Dutch command this September.

    "It is vital to help the Afghan people rebuild their devastated country and ensure the security of the region," Baska said during the ministers' visit to Tarin Kut, accompanied by a Dutch delegation headed by Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen.

    Slovakia currently has 69 soldiers in Afghanistan, 56 of whom are in the multifunctional engineering unit at the base in Kandahar.

    In April, the defense ministry said it planned to raise the number of Slovak soldiers in Afghanistan to 280 by 2010, pending approval from the government and parliament.

    Slovakia has some 600 soldiers deployed in foreign missions. Last year, the Slovak government withdrew 100 engineers from Iraq.