Italy plans to end conscription in December 2006. Currently, the Italian military has 256,000 troops, of which 104,500 are conscripts. By December 2006, the military will have been cut to 190,000 personnel. Current recruiting is producing only half of the people needed to support the smaller future force. Italy plans to offer recruiting bonuses and expects that some people who now wait to be drafted would enlist if that was the only option. Even so, one possible solution under study is to allow foreigners to emigrate to Italy if they agree to sign on for several years of military service, which would earn them Italian citizenship. Spain (facing the same problems) is recruiting young men from Latin America under a similar program.--Stephen V Cole