BUDAPEST, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Forty-two Hungarian soldiers had arrived on the Cape Verde Islands in West Africa, to take part in the NATO Response Force military exercises along with 7,000 soldiers from other NATO countries, local media reported on Tuesday.

    The Hungarian unit would be responsible for desalinating sea water from the surrounding Atlantic Ocean waters. And the desalinated water would be used for drinking and cooking purposes in the exercises, scheduled for mid-June.

    The NATO summit in Prague in November 2002 decided to establisha comprehensive NATO military response force.

    The Cape Verde Islands maneuver would be a test for the effectiveness of the force and the result would be announced at the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia at the end of November this year. Enditem