Norway will send a "limited number" of instructors, military officers and support personnel, the ministry said in a statement.

"We're talking about a small group of about a dozen people," ministry spokesman Martin Lohne told AFP.

The departure date and duration of the mission have yet to be announced.

The 26-member alliance decided at its June summit in Istanbul to help Iraq reconstitute its security forces, and has since begun to put together this assistance, not without internal discord.

As part of the assistance program some 20 Iraqi military top brass last month participated in a training program at the NATO center in Stavanger in southwestern Norway.

The Scandinavian country's center-right government came out strongly against the US-led war on Iraq, but did agree to send troops on a United Nations' mandate to help in the reconstruction effort after the "end of major combat" in May 2003.

The 130 Norwegian troops were withdrawn in June this year.

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