PRAGUE, Jan 9: Some 350 Czech soldiers from a chemical protection unit are to be deployed in Kuwait in March to protect US troops and their allies, the head of the Czech armed forces said on Wednesday.

“They are going to protect allied units against chemical and biological weapons,” Czech armed forces chief Jiri Sedivy said.

The Czech deployment, scheduled for early March, was requested by US authorities in November essentially to back up its military campaign against members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, the Czech authorities said.

The move was approved by the country’s two houses of parliament in December.

Prague said Britain, which is commanding an international security force in Afghanistan, had decided against the participation of Czech parachutists in the war-torn country.

The Czech Republic has been a member of NATO since March 1999, along with Hungary and Poland.

German tanks: The German government said on Wednesday it may send special light tanks for atomic, biological and chemical (ABC) weapons reconnaissance to the Arabian peninsula, but denied this was linked to any impending attack on Iraq.

A government statement declined to confirm media reports that the “Fuchs” armoured vehicles, with up to 800 troops, were headed to Kuwait.

“A possible pre-stationing of parts of (these) forces is planned in the Arabian peninsula. In order to protect these forces and their operating mandate no further information will be given,” said the statement.

German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping told reporters that no attack on Iraq was planned. “There are no signs of this — just the opposite...,” said Scharping.

Fuchs armoured vehicles can detect radiation and chemical weapons such as nerve gas. Germany is the only country to produce such a mobile ABC early warning system and the Fuchs has been sold to the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Britain.

In a related development, Germany announced it was the first country to have an ambassador in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban regime.

Ambassador Rainer Eberle handed over his diplomatic accreditation to interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai on Wednesday, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said.—AFP/dpa