Twelve soldiers left the Taszar airbase in southern Hungary on a Russian-made AN-124 cargo plane, the Iraqi mission spokesman Dezso Kiss told

Another 42 soldiers are due to leave on Saturday and Sunday on four different flights, he added.

The 54 soldiers will prepare the headquarters for the main contingent of 240 Hungarian troops, who will depart for Iraq in the middle of August, Kiss said.

In all, the Hungarian parliament has authorised the deployment of 300 Hungarian soldiers, most of them logistical experts, to aid in the reconstruction of Iraq.

The Hungarian troops, whou will operate under Polish command, will be based in Al Hillah, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Baghdad.

The conservative opposition in parliament held up for more than a month government attempts to have the deployment approved.

The opposition argued that without a United Nations mandate, the Hungarian mission would be part of an occupying force in Iraq. The opposition relented after the UN lifted economic sanctions on Iraq in late May, saying this amounted to international endorsement.

Hungary, which joined NATO in 1999, was part of the coalition which supported the US-led war to oust former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

WAR.WIRE