The course will be resumed after a "new approach to the training process" has been approved, he said.

The minister spoke to journalists after a hearing of parliament's defence committee in which he was questioned about the measures announced by the army to reform procedures for medical assessment diagnosis of candidates for courses to train special troops - including commandos, paratroopers and special operations.

Azeredo Lopes stressed the "positive" fact that the two deaths had prompted action, even though the criminal investigations have not yet concluded.

Secondly, he said, the army ordered the suspension of new courses in order to assess "what might have gone wrong in terms of procedures". This included "an assessment of the training process" and the need to "correct the benchmarks that determine" the training model.

"If all goes well as so far, from April it should be possible to resume the commandos course, now with this new approach to the training process," he said.

After the deaths of the two trainees an extraordinary expert inspection was ordered of the course, the report from which was concluded on 5 December.

For a new course to be started, the head of the army, Rovisco Duarte, must issue an order to that effect, after he suspended all new courses until the conclusion of measures foreseen in the report.

April was already the date scheduled for the first commando course this year, according to the army's training plan.