Georgia will send an additional 550 troops to Iraq next month, bringing the size of the small former Soviet republic's contingent to 850, an official said Sunday. The troops are due to leave for Iraq in late February and will join 300 soldiers who began a six-month stint in November, Levan Nikolaishvili, deputy chief of the Georgian military's general staff, told The Associated Press. The government late last year announced plans to raise the number of Georgian troops in Iraq to 850 in 2005, but did not given a timetable. In a statement late Saturday welcoming the Iraqi elections as a "historic event," Georgia's Foreign Ministry said some of the troops being sent to Iraq would help guard the U.N. mission there. Since his election a year ago, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has cultivated closer ties with the United States in a bid to offset the influence of neighboring Russia. The 300 soldiers sent to Iraq in November were among some 2,000 trained under a U.S. program to improve Georgia's anti-terrorism capabilities. In December, a top U.S. general said the United States will launch a new, US$40 million (¤30 million) military program this year to train Georgian soldiers to support U.S.-led coalition operations in Iraq.
