SKorea to halve troop deployment in Iraq: Report

Seoul, Nov 24: South Korea plans to halve its troop deployment in Iraq but wants to extend the mission that expires at the end of December by another year, Yonhap news agency said today quoting a government official.

South Korea, which once had the third largest foreign military presence in Iraq with as many as 3,600 troops, now has a little more than 2,300 soldiers on a peace-keeping mission in the northern region of Arbil.

''There is a consensus to reduce the number of troops from the current 2,330 to about 1,200 and extend the deployment for another year,'' the official was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

Defence and foreign ministry officials declined to confirm the report. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has consistently backed the Iraq deployment despite lingering opposition from his own liberal Uri Party.

He said during a meeting with U S President George W Bush in Hanoi on the margins of an Asia-Pacific summit last week that Seoul had a keen interest in the security of West Asia.

A group of lawmakers including Uri members proposed a resolution in parliament this month calling for the troops' pullout. The extension of their deployment requires parliamentary approval.

South Korea cut its troops by a third to 2,300 in December last year when its parliament approved the one-year extension of the mission that originally began in 2004.

Reuters