The security situation in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah is stable enough to allow a dispatch of Japanese ground troops to help reconstruct the country, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Friday.  

Japan has sent a government team, consisting mainly of Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) personnel, to visit southern Iraq ahead of Japan's planned dispatch of Self-Defense Forces (SDF) troops to that country, the financial daily said.

Armed with the report, the government plans to submit a basic plan to the cabinet outlining the SDF's mission in Iraq, the Nihon Keizai said, adding a decision will be made as early as Dec. 5.

The basic plan features reconstructing infrastructure, including building and repairing water-purification plants and restoring hospitals and schools built with Japan's official development assistance, the newspaper said.

It said the ASDF may also transport US and British weapons and ammunition.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, a major Japanese daily, reported Friday that Japan has decided to send an advance team of about 10 officers from the Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) to Kuwait sometime in early December.

A full ASDF mission of about 140 officers will follow the advance team in January with three C-130 transport planes to bring goods and supplies from Kuwait to Iraq for the United States and British forces and Iraqis, according to the newspaper.

The Yomiuri Shimbun said Japan also hopes to send an advance mission from the GSDF by the end of the year.

Another Japanese daily, the Mainichi Shimbun, said Japan is seeking to send an ASDF advance research mission to a country bordering Iraq by the end of the year, but it did not mention any specific country.

A special Japanese law, enacted in July, allows Japan to dispatch troops to Iraq or neighboring areas but only to conduct noncombatant mission.

(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2003)