"The new Iraqi national army will be dedicated to the security of the nation not the regime," said US Army Major General Paul Eaton, charged with supervising the revamp of a military once feared around the Middle East.

"It will be professional, not political, and outwardly focused."

The first 1,000-man lightly armoured mechanised infantry battalion would start operating after the recruits complete their August 2-October 9 basic training and would then be required to serve 26 months.

Recruits will be paid 60 dollars per month during the training but then would be eligible for pay increases based on their rank, said Eaton and Walter Slocumb, the US-led coalition's advisor on defense issues.

"We will pick the most promising soldiers for this professional fighting force," Eaton said.

Recruitment stations will be set up in the northern city of Mosul, Baghdad and the southern port city of Basra.

The US boss for Iraq, Paul Bremer, abolished Saddam Hussein's old 400,000-strong military and vaunted labyrinth of security forces in May.

Men are eligible between the ages of 18 to 40, with the exception of those who were colonels or above in the old Iraqi army or served in the top four tiers of the ousted Baath Party.

From July 10 to July 15, the US-led administration will also choose an elite crew of 60 Iraqi army veterans to consult on the curriculum for the new army, making sure the valued traditions and practices of the Iraqi military survive the transition.

"These are the men who will ensure ... we do not lose the traditions we wish to retain as we build the new army," Eaton said.

Slocumb stressed that once the first battalion was ready to go, the coalition would pick up speed in churning out a new fighting force.

The army aims to have a nucleus of 12,000 men within a year and a full 40,000 in two years time, tasked with manning Iraq's borders and ensuring internal stability as well as working side by side with US forces.

The coalition reiterated the army will be representative of all Iraq's communities, from Kurdish to Christian to Sunni and Shiite Muslim.

The basic training facility will be in Qaraqosh, near Mosul.

The coalition is advertising the recruiting campaign with posters of a giant yellow-coloured soldier framed against a map of the country, with a line advising candidates to bring lunch and not a weapon to recruitment stations.

The Pentagon in June awarded a 48-million-dollar contract to train the new Iraqi army to Vinnell Corporation, a US firm which also trains members of the Saudi National Guard.

Meanwhile, Slocumb confirmed monthly payments to veterans of the old Iraqi army would begin July 15, starting with the rank of brigadiers and generals and then moving down by rank each day.

"Two hundred thousand people are expected to be paid," he said, a number revised from the previous estimate of 250,000 veterans.

He added there would be a one-time handout to conscripts, while monthly payments would carry on for officers until a new Iraqi government is established, a process which could take two years.

The monthly payment would range from 50 to 250 dollars.

The former soldiers, out of a job since May, staged demonstrations in June and threatened to launch attacks on the US authorities until the coalition relented and agreed to make payments to them.

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