Hungarian President Pal Schmitt continued his two-day visit to the West Balkans in Kosovo on Thursday to extend the season's greetings to Hungarian peacekeepers stationed there.

Schmitt is the first Hungarian head of state to visit Hungarian troops serving in Europe's youngest state. Arriving from Bosnia Herzegovina for an unofficial visit to Kosovo, Schmitt made a courtesy call on his Kosovar counterpart Atifete Jahjaga.

Hungarian peacekeepers have since the very beginning participated in the operations of the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) set up under a UN mandate after NATO's air strikes on Yugoslavia in 1999.

The Hungarian contingent of the 5,500-strong KFOR is composed of nearly 240 soldiers, serving in a Hungarian-Portuguese battalion. Hungary announced earlier this month that it had presented a bid to NATO for the task of controlling the upper air space and civilian air traffic in Kosovo.

(MTI)