Slovenian President Borut Pahor met with military leaders on Wednesday and agreed the tiny Balkan country would stick to its existing military budget.

In their talks, Pahor, Defence Minister Janko Veber, and the newly-appointed chief of general staff Brigadier General Andrej Osterman agreed that Slovenia could not cut its military expenditure any more.

The meeting's leaders stressed the need to preserve the present size of the defence forces, and to stabilize financing, Pahor's office said in a statement.

Currently, Slovenia has about 7,300 active troops, and approximately 1,500 in reserve.

The defence budget has halved in the last five years to 362 million euros (about 458 million US dollars), which represents 1.06 percent of Slovenia's GDP, former Slovenian defence minister Roman Jakic said in Brussels in June.

Much of the military's heavy equipment is approaching 20 years of age and the defence system needs new investments, Jakic told his NATO counterparts at that time. Eighty percent of Slovenia's defence budget was spent on wages, 18 percent on administrative costs, with only 2 percent reserved for investment, he said.

By NATO standards, the ratio should be 50-30-20. (1 euro = about 1.26 US dollars)