Members of Japan's air force left for the Middle East Friday to lay the groundwork for the nation's dispatch of troops to Iraq in what may become its biggest and most dangerous military mission since World War II.

The air force personnel are part of an advance team of around 40 members who are traveling to Kuwait and Qatar ahead of a larger unit expected to arrive in Iraq in January.

"I would like (the advance team) to make a great contribution in the field of activities related to reconstruction and aid. I hope they will achieve excellent results," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference.

Although it was the first dispatch of personnel under a controversial government plan to have the military assist in the reconstruction of Iraq, the departure was hardly dramatic.

The members of the advance team, wearing civilian clothes, left on a commercial flight from an airport near Tokyo, mixed among businessmen and tourists heading abroad for the New Year holidays.

The team will hold talks with members of the U.S.-led coalition to prepare for the arrival of over 150 personnel and several transport planes in January.

When the main unit arrives it is expected to aid in transporting supplies between Kuwait and Iraq.

The dispatch comes as surveys show that public opinion is deeply divided over the government's decision to send the military to Iraq.

More than half the respondents in recent polls said they opposed the dispatch plan, while around a third supported it.

The debate over whether to send troops intensified after two Japanese diplomats were gunned down in Iraq late last month.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who gave the go ahead to the troop dispatch earlier this month, has had to balance Japan's tight security ties with the United States, which is keen for the dispatch, with domestic concerns that increased after the deaths of the diplomats.

HUMANITARIAN AID, NOT WAR

Koizumi has said that members of the Self-Defense Force, which is what Japan calls its military, would be sent to help with the reconstruction of Iraq and not for combat.

In an apparent bid to get that message across to Arab countries, the prime minister appeared on Qatar-based al-Jazeera television Thursday.

"The Self-Defense Force is going for reconstruction aid activities and humanitarian aid activities and not for war. I explained this thoroughly," Koizumi told reporters after he was interviewed by the popular Arabic television channel.

Japan's constitution renounces the right to go to war and prohibits the nation from having a military, but has been interpreted as allowing Japan to have forces for self-defense.

A law allowing troops to be sent to help rebuild Iraq was enacted in July, but it specifies that they be sent only to "non-combat" zones.

The government plan allows for up to 600 army personnel to be sent to Iraq at any time during a one-year period that started on December 15, along with up to 200 vehicles including armored vehicles, eight air force transport planes, two navy warships and two destroyers.

Analysts have said that if Japanese troops were to suffer casualties in Iraq if would be politically fatal for Koizumi, especially ahead of parliamentary elections next summer.

No member of Japan's military has fired a shot in combat or been killed in an overseas mission since World War II, although they have taken part in United Nations peacekeeping operations since a 1992 law made that possible.

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