TOKYO,(Saba) - Japan plans to send its first main ground troop deployment to Iraq in late February, , as the government warned that its
embassy in Baghdad received a threat warning of a possible attack. The Associated Press reported Wednesday The troops will carry out reconstruction work and other non-combat duties.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet last week approved a plan to send 1,000 military personnel to southern Iraq, raising fears that Japanese soldiers could get drawn into fighting. Koizumi defended the plan in Parliament this week.

Top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda told reporters Wednesday that the deployment schedule was still being worked out.

The Mainichi newspaper, however, reported that the Defense Agency submitted a proposed schedule to the government for approval, saying a 78-member advance team would go to Iraq next month to prepare for the arrival of
135 soldiers in the southern city of Samawah.

The troops would leave for Iraq on Feb. 21 and would be deployed at a Dutch military base, the paper said, citing a copy of the proposed schedule.