VILNIUS, Lithuania - Prostitutes are charging NATO (news - web sites) troops dispatched to this Baltic state more than three times as much money as Lithuanian clients, police said Thursday. In recent days, prostitutes have been arriving in the city of Siauliai, where 100 NATO soldiers are stationed, part of a team to service four Belgian F-16s that patrol the skies above Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Police Commissioner General Vytautas Grigaravicius told reporters.

He said that the sex workers were hiking their rates for the Western troops, who come from Belgium and Norway.


"Prostitutes take $35 an hour from Lithuanian citizens, while NATO troops are asked to pay $125 an hour," he said, calling it a clear case of discrimination. Prostitution is illegal in the country of 3.5 million residents.


Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were inducted into the U.S.-led alliance on March 29 along with four other ex-communist countries.