Representatives of the families of the three Israel Defense Forces soldiers abducted last summer - Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser - are leaving Thursday to meet political leaders in France and Portugal.

The group will meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for the first time since they took office, and are expected to ask them to work toward the release of the captive soldiers.

The delegation is also planning to meet with the head of the Portuguese parliament and the deputy president of the Red Cross office in Portugal.

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As unresolved issues continue to swirl around Hezbollah's July 12 abduction of Regev and Goldwasser, attendance is high among the reservists in their battalion now undergoing training, nearly a year after the kidnapping.

A source in the battalion said attendance was particularly high in Regev and Goldwasser's unit.

The source said the battalion was applying lessons learned during the war, including the need for greater battalion-level coordination, mission preparation and independent access to intelligence.