The first 145 of Bulgaria's main peacekeeping troop has left for Iraq, the Bulgarian news agency reported Monday.

The soldiers will first arrive by plane in Kuwait, their first base in the Gulf, to have adaptation training.

The main basis of the troop will be in the southern Iraqi city Kerbala which has predominantly Shia population.

Trained in accordance with NATO standards, the Bulgarian troops will be included in the division in southern Iraq which is under the command of Poland.

The main peacekeeping troop is dispatched after a thirty-strong avant-garde left for Iraq on July 26.

The United States agreed to cover transportation and living expenses of the Bulgarian soldiers. However, Sofia hopes to negotiate additional funding for the Bulgarian soldiers in Iraq's neighboring territories.

As a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the Balkan state openly threw its support behind the United States and Britain for the war on Iraq early this year.

At the beginning of the war, Bulgaria had planned to send a nuclear, biological and chemical defense contingent to a country neighboring Iraq.

After the plan was canceled, the Bulgarian parliament approved in May to send a 500-strong peacekeeping force to Iraq to contribute to the country's postwar reconstruction.
 
(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2003)