The Irish peacekeeping presence in Kosovo is to be doubled to around 250 in the next eight months, and its mission changed from a transport unit to a light-armed infantry role.
The new Kosovo role will be the Defence Forces' largest peacekeeping commitment, replacing the battalion-sized (around 550-strong) contingent which served for 23 years in Lebanon.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, is visiting the Irish transport unit's headquarters today after spending a day with the 59-member Irish military police contingent serving in Sarajevo.
He is spending three days in the Balkans meeting Irish personnel and having discussions with senior UN and NATO officials.
The MPs' role in Sarajevo is to continue unchanged for the near future.
This follows the resolution of a dispute between the US and the UN over the International Criminal Court. The transport unit in Koslov, based in Laputan, outside the capital Pristina, has served for over three years and the last unit will complete its six-month tour in early autumn.
The 112 transport and logistics specialists will be replaced on the next tour of duty by a similar number of infantry troops.
This group will establish the new role and will be expanded to a unit of around 250 in April. It will serve with Scandinavian battalions under British command in the Multinational Brigade Centre (MNBC). This is deployed in the central and north-eastern region of Kosovo. Most of the 700,000 living in the area are Albanians and in the early days of the mission the force had to deal with retaliatory attacks on the minority Serbs remaining in the area.
In the north-east of the mission area there is a border with Serbia and the brigade has responsibility for three boundary-crossing points. There were frequent clashes at these crossings in the early days of the mission but these have become fewer in the past two years.
The mission of MNBC is to "establish and maintain a secure environment and to assist the UN-mandated mission in order to promote peace and stability in Kosovo".
This includes the monitoring and enforcement of the Military Technical Agreement.A Finnish battalion (Finbatt) has served in Kosovo since August 1999, and like the Irish unit it is among the non-NATO peacekeeping troops participating in the 55,000-strong operation.
The Irish infantry unit, using new armoured personnel carriers (APCs), will assist in the roles of "security of the area", monitoring "transformation and compliance" towards the establishment of democratic institutions and "civil military operations".
The Irish battalion served alongside Finnish and Norwegian troops for most of the duration of the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon and this experience contributed to the decision to locate the Irish infantry unit under their direction.
It has been the Defence Forces' intention to establish a battalion-sized peace mission abroad since leaving Lebanon two years ago.
The other foreign missions abroad are the 200-strong logistics and security element in Eritrea and an infantry unit of around 50 serving in East Timor. There are also observers on other UN missions.