THE resources devoted to the foreign relations of the State are relatively modest", amounting to just half of 1 per cent of total Government spending, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, said yesterday.

Speaking during a discussion of his Department's estimates at the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring said 96 per cent of the Department's budget was for administrative costs, which in 1996 would amount to £55.061 million.

This included the full set up and annual running costs of the three missions opened last year in Malaysia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The set up costs for the planned embassy in Israel would be covered in the 1997 Estimates.

Outlining his Department's programme of work for this year, Mr Spring said the coincidence of the EU presidency and Ireland's chairing of the EU's Inter Governmental Conference "may be amongst the most demanding and complex international assignments to have faced an Irish Government".

"Irish Ministers will chair approximately 40 council meetings. Officials will be required to chair over 2,000 working group meetings," he said.

Mr Spring said the major issues which Ireland would face during the EU Presidency included:

. furthering EU action on employment,

. advancing the fight against illegal drugs,

. working for a smooth transition to EMU and

. consolidating the advances achieved by the single market.

The EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy added additional responsibilities to the presidency, he went on. Regions such as the former Yugoslavia, central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa were expected to dominate the foreign policy agenda,

A summit of heads of state or government from the countries of the Organisation for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would take place during the Irish presidency, as will a major World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting.