Japan plans to send a 150-member Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) engineering unit to southern Iraq in December as an advance team to help its reconstruction, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Friday.

As long as local security situations do not deteriorate significantly, the team will be sent to Iraq on a Maritime Self-Defense Force ship and will be followed next year by a main team of 500-600 troops to provide water, electricity and medical support.

The Japanese government is also arranging to send three C-130 transport planes to Iraq and neighboring countries at the end of the year, according to the daily.

A law authorizing the dispatch of SDF troops to Iraq was enacted in July but security situations there have prevented Japan from making a swift dispatch despite US requests.
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 3, 2003)