"We plan to send approximately 200 people to Iraq" in February, Tevzadze told reporters in televised comments from the airport, where he saw off 20 Georgian peacekeepers on their way to Kosovo.

The Iraqi contingent will include medical personnel and special forces, he said.

In early December, the US ambassador to Georgia, Richard Miles, said that by summer 2004, another 300 soldiers from the former Soviet republic will arrive in Iraq.

The Georgian government is paying the salaries of 400-600 dollars a month for the soldiers who flew out on August 3 for a six-month mission as part of an international task force in Iraq and who are now stationed in the town of Tikrit.

The United States is footing the bill for their uniforms, weapons and other expenses.

The US has also run a 64-million-dollar Train and Equip program for the Georgian armed forces under which more than 2,000 Georgian servicemen have received training.

The program was launched in May 2002 and is to continue until the end of

Relations between Georgia and the United States are expected to become even closer after the election of Mikhail Saakashvili, a 36-year-old US-educated lawyer, to the country's presidency.

Saakashvili, who spearheaded the protests that peacefully drove from power veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze at the end of November, was overwhelmingly elected as the new leader of the Caucasus nation on January 4.

According to latest election commission figures, with 63 percent of ballots counted, Saakashvili has received 97 percent of the tabulated votes.

The count was proceeding slowly on Wednesday as Georgia celebrated Orthodox Christmas.

WAR.WIRE