VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria plans to extend checks at its borders with Slovenia and Hungary by another six months from May 11, when the current six-month suspension of free travel over those boundaries expires, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told ORF radio on Tuesday.

"We will inform the European Commission in the coming days that we will have to extend these border checks," Karner said, adding that the continued suspension of the Schengen area's free-travel rules at those boundaries was necessary in order to fight illegal immigration.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Christopher Cushing)