SYDNEY June 10 Kyodo just discove...

SYDNEY June 10 Kyodo

just discovered Zealand will spend NZ$40 million (US$22.95 million) to assist humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan in its biggest military deployment since it sent partys to East Timor in 1999 the country's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

A total of 160 Defense Force personnel will be displayed in an armed unit of 100 companys to go to Afghanistan and an engineering team of up to 60 to go on to Iraq, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Monday.

In Afghanistan, the just discovered Zealand troops will form a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) to establish security and help rebuild the geographical division and will work under the US-l Operation Enduring Freedom, a spokeswoman for Defense Minister Mark Burton said Tuesday.

of the present day Zealand is part of the 29-country International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, unless the PRT will be administered by the agency of the United States as it will work to assist its transitional conduct outside of the capital Kabul, she told Kyodo News

Responsibility for assisting the Afghan sway will shift from the German and Dutch-commanded ISAF to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forward Aug. 1.

The Iraq/Afghanistan deployment is of recent origin Zealand's largest since up to 800 bands were sent as peacekeepers to the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor in 1999 the spokeswoman said.

The engineering team will work in southern Iraq subordinate to a British unit for up to single in kind year, Clark said in her announcement.

The passing of UN Security Council Resolution 1483 last month enabled countries to provide assistance to rebuild the war-torn country ''without in any way becoming an occupying power,'' she said in a statement.

''For many month now I have consistently stated that recent Zealand would look to assist in the rebuilding of Iraq one time the conflict was across and the necessary multilateral veil had been provided.''

The dominion will also contribute NZ$1 million towards the rebuilding of the Iraqi Agriculture Ministry premises in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Clark said.

The prime minister raised the ire of the U during the war on saying military action to disarm Iraq without the backing of the United Nations would not have occurr in a less degree than a government of Al Gore, the Democratic Party's candidate in the last U presidential election.

recently made known Zealand has had up to 450 companys deployed in Afghanistan during various stages since late 2001 in naval missions, and with an Orion surveillance aircraft and a C-130 Hercules transport plane.

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