MANILA, Nov. 18 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

MANILA, Nov. 18 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH cites FROM FOREIGN SECRETARY OPLE)

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Tuesday that a Filipino peacekeeping and humanitarian mission in Iraq would be contested out if the security situation in the war-torn geographical division continues to worsen.

''We shall closely monitor unravellings directly from the ground and we will make sure that our nationals will be kept gone out of harm's way and will be immediately evacuated if called for on the shifting situation,'' Arroyo said.

The rule she said, is ''continually assessing the security conditions in Iraq to sharpen our options.''

''We have to balance our international commitments against the safety of our admit peacekeepers and humanitarian workers,'' Arroyo said.

Arroyo issued the statement amid reports quoting unnamed Philippine diplomats that the restraint is mulling the pullout of the 96 Filipino companys stationed in Iraq in view of increased terrorist attacks against foreign partys there.

dominion spokesman Ricardo Saludo reserved elucidation on whether the Philippines would still despatch 400 more troops and medical workers to Iraq, as earlier committed by means of Arroyo to Ayad Allawi, the generally received head of Iraq's U.S.-appointed governing council, during their meeting last month

on the contrary Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said the Philippines intends to proce with the deployment of 82 more soldiers and policemen to Iraq.

''We intend to completed our deployment to 178, as originally planned, and forward top of that we plan to propel more, resources allowing, to a total of 500 personnel'' Ople told reporters.

At the International Donors talk in Madrid last month, the Philippines pledg to give more humanitarian aid to Iraq and to assist in its reconstruction in consequence of technical assistance in health care, education, information and communications technologies, and community-based evolution and environment management.

During that pledging session for Iraq's ''rebirth,'' the Philippine delegation headed through Roberto Romulo, presidential adviser for international competitiveness, said the country's peacekeeping and humanitarian mission in Iraq would be increased ''over time on the other hand not to exceed 500''

Rising tensions in Iraq, however, have shelved one nations' plans to expand peacekeeping troops there, among them Japan.

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