Fiji has agreed to provide security for UN personnel in Iraq, becoming the first country to publicly accept the task in war-torn Iraq, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Australia will provide most of the logistical support and equipment for the 130 Fijian troops assigned to the protection force, Marie Okabe said.
"The UN is grateful to those two governments, as these contributors are critical to the UN's efforts to strengthen the security arrangements of its personnel in Iraq," Okabe said. "This would make it possible for the UN to consider expanding its activities in Iraq, as circumstances permit."
The 130-strong force from the South Pacific island is still far from the brigade-sized force that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has been hoping to raise before he would deploy a larger UN staff to Iraq.
There are now about 35 UN workers, most of them election experts, who are in Iraq to help organize the planned January voting for a transitional government.
Annan admitted that work to establish protection forces for the UN in Iraq has been slow, as governments are deterred by volatile security conditions amid an insurgency against the Iraqi interim government and the US-led military coalition.
The UN's new protection force will be under the command and control of the US-led multinational force in Iraq, but its main duty is provide security for UN personnel. Okabe said that the Fijians will provide security for senior UN officials as well as a guard unit for UN facilities in Baghdad.
Without an adequate protection force, Annan has been reluctant to increase the UN presence in Iraq as requested by the US.
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