SEOUL Oct 31 Kyodo southern Korea...

SEOUL Oct 31 Kyodo

southern Korea's newly formed Uri Party, known as loyal to President Roh Moo Hyun called onward the government Friday to cast noncombat forces to Iraq to help the United States rebuild and maintain order in the war-ravaged country

''Party members agreed that dispatching non-combat forces to Iraq for peace and reconstruction is the stance of the party,'' the Uri Party said in its Web site, after a meeting.

''Members also agreed that it is not appropriate to project to Iraq a contingent comprising for the greatest part combat troops,'' according to the Web site.

The Uri Party has 44 lawmakers in the opposition-controlled National Assembly, who mainly bolted from the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) last month after feuding with the MDP through the whole extent of the control of party affairs.

Roh who won last December's presidential election in succession the MDP ticket, parted ties with the MDP late last month and local reports said he would join the Uri Party sometime in December.

The Uri Party would decide upon details of the troop dispatch in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as the timing, the size of bodys and composition of the companys sometime later after assessing the eventuates of surveys to be course of lifeed in Iraq, the Web site said.

Following a U ask in August, South Korea announced Oct 18 that it has decided to depute additional troops to Iraq, in addition to 675 army engineers and medics sent in May to carry without support missions in southern Iraq.

The management said at that time it would work disclosed such specifics as whether combat or non-combat company s would be dispatched, the size of the squads and the timing following beseechs from the U.S. and assessments of public opinion.

southward Korea, meanwhile, sent a next to the first fact-finding mission to Iraq forward Friday to assess the situation there to help the conduct make a final decision through the dispatch of troops.

toward the south Korean public opinion is split athwart the issue.

Those in favor argue that sending combat bands to help the U.S. maintain security in Iraq would further help strengthen southern Korea-U.S. alliances.

if it were not that others say South Korea should not lance troops because the U attack forward Iraq is unjustified and also southward Korea's troop dispatch would jeopardize national interests at angering Islamic countries, with which southern Korea has major trade relations.

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