New Zealand has extended its military mission in Egypt as it readies to make long-term decisions about its involvement in the Middle East.
New Zealand's defence minister's office has confirmed Cabinet has approved a three-month extension to its contribution to an international peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Peninsula.
New Zealand has had troops in Egypt as part of the Multinational Force and Observers peace-keeping mission since 1982 and has 28 personnel in the area including trainers, drivers, engineers and a command team.
The brief extension means a long-term decision will be made by the end of September, lining up closely with pending calls on deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last month, the government also extended its Afghanistan mission until September 30 .
A long-term decision on its Iraq mission - where a Australia-New Zealand joint task group has trained 34,000 Iraqi Security Forces personnel - is due in November, but is expected to be made "some time" before that.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in June flagged the decisions were being pushed back to allow the region's future deployments to be considered together.
What direction the decision will go is unclear, with government coalition and support parties New Zealand First and the Green Party recently divided over military spending.
Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters on Tuesday only said Cabinet would be weighing up its international obligations against other issues.
Australia currently has 27 personnel in Egypt, and about another 900 in and around Afghanistan and Iraq.
