U(3) chiral perturbation theory with infrared regularization

We include the eta-prime in chiral perturbation theory without employing 1/N_c counting rules. The method is illustrated by calculating the masses and decay constants of the Goldstone boson octet (pions, kaons, eta) and the singlet eta-prime up to one-loop order. The effective Lagrangian describing the interactions of the eta-prime with the Goldstone boson octet is presented up to fourth chiral order and the loop integrals are evaluated using infrared regularization, which preserves Lorentz and chiral symmetry.