NATO says to offer gendarme training in Iraq

BRUSSELS, June 15 (Reuters) NATO said today it had agreed to broaden its military training operation in Iraq to include courses for gendarme paramilitary functions.

''We have agreed to a request by the Iraqi government for gendarmerie-type training,'' alliance defence ministers said in a joint statement released after a two-day meeting in Brussels.

A NATO spokesman said the new courses would mean a further 50 NATO trainers joining an existing 100 on the ground who have been providing Iraqi cadets with training modelled on Britain's Sandhurst military college at a base just outside Baghdad.

The 26-country military alliance did not participate militarily in the 2003 US-led war in Iraq, which countries including France and Germany opposed.

REUTERS SLD KN1944