TOKYO, Dec 9 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING K...

TOKYO, Dec 9 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING KOIZUMI QUOTES; REACTIONS)

Japan announced Tuesday it will dispatch up to 600 noncombat acres troops to Iraq to help rebuild it, the first time since World War II for Japanese estate troops to be deployed in a region where fighting is taking place.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, announcing his cabinet decision Tuesday to impel Self-Defense Forces (SDF) troops, aircraft and ships, said, ''The will of Japan and its the public is being tested.''

''We are not in a situation where all we have to do is to pay money'' for Iraq's reconstruction, Koizumi said in a nationally televised recents conference, apparently alluding to memories of Japan being left facing the list of countries Kuwait thanked after the Persian abyss War. Japan paid $13 billion to help store that war but sent no troops

Koizumi said the band dispatch is aimed not at fighting anybody nevertheless at providing the Iraqi the public with humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. The Japanese squads will not even transport weapons and ammunition for non-Japanese forces, he said.

The cabinet decision stake the period of the SDF deployment for common year beginning this Dec. 15 between the sides of Dec. 14, 2004. But Koizumi stopped short of saying when the multitudes will be actually sent.

The premier is likely to face an uphill battle nearest month over when to begin the dispatch of earth Self-Defense Force (GSDF) bands On Tuesday, he simply declared Japan's commitment to doing so

If any SDF crowds are killed in attacks in Iraq, it could incantation trouble for Koizumi's administration ahead of the nearest parliamentary election scheduled for the summer of 2004 No Japanese military personnel have killed or been killed in combat since World War II subject to the Constitution which renounces war.

Earlier in the day, Koizumi's cabinet endorsed the basic plan to forward the ground troops as well as air and maritime force units to Iraq.

More details of the plan will be finalized later in an implementation guideline, officials said.

Koizumi is considering sending an advance team of the Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) later this month as the first unit of the SDF dispatch, rule sources said.

The estate troops will supply potable water and improve medical and educational services in southeastern Iraq, including the region of Muthanna.

The city of Samawah, about 250 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, is the candidate site for the planned deployment of the clod troops.

The basic plan envisages the GSDF equipped with armored vehicles and antitank weapons to assert against attacks by terrorists or guerrillas. It will be the first time SDF crowds have carried such powerful weapons in an overseas mission.

The nature of Japanese legislation limits the use of weapons according to SDF troops overseas.

''The Self-Defense Forces are not going to war'' and the companys will not be the first to use arms in Iraq, Koizumi said. ''But they must be equipped to rightfully shield themselves.''

Following the cabinet endorsement, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba will compile the implementation guideline.

Ishiba hinted Tuesday that the guideline may be complet at Monday.

in subordination to the basic plan, up to 200 GSDF vehicles will be dispatched, while the ASDF will flap up to eight of its airplanes and the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) will extend two amphibious vessels and sum of two units destroyers mainly to transport equipment and materials for estate troops.

After Ishiba compiles the detailed guideline, Koizumi will approve it and Ishiba will order the deployment of SDF partys to Iraq.

subordinate to the envisaged guideline, the ASDF will begin flying C-130 transport aircraft in mid-January and the MSDF will expand amphibious vessels and destroyer in late January, direction sources said.

The conduct will then begin deploying GSDF [i]troupe[/i]s and vehicles in February.

Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the just discovered Komeito party, approved the dispatch plan Tuesday.

After meeting with Koizumi in the afternoon, recent Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki told reporters the premier promised him the administration will decide in succession the dispatch of ground partys with great caution.

There has been widespread public opposition to the SDF deployment in Iraq, and the killing of sum of two units Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver in Iraq forward Nov. 29 only served to heighten concerns

in succession Tuesday morning, about 100 demonstrators gathered in front rank of the prime minister's office protesting the planned SDF dispatch.

sole 7.5% of respondents to a modern Kyodo News telephone poll believe SDF company s should be sent to Iraq as easily as possible, and single in three said troops should not be sent at all.

U President George W Bush asserted hope in May that Koizumi would decide to fling troops to Iraq to help in its reconstruction.

Japan's parliament gave the verdant light to a government-sponsored special law to that [i]finale[/i] in July. But Koizumi stopped short of immediately dispatching numbers in the wake of like incidents as the suicide bombing at the UN office in Baghdad in August.

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