The South Korean government reiterated Friday that it will decide whether to accept a US request for the dispatch of more troops to Iraq after "carefully" reviewing public sentiment and the international situation.

"The government will carefully examine whether to send additional troops after a review and evaluation of all sorts of factors such as domestic and international sentiments, the current situation in Iraq and the Arab world as well as the dispatch's impact on our security," said in Seoul Yoon Tai-young, spokesman for the presidential office of the Blue House.

Yoon said the government will provide the public with the necessary information to help them form "correct" opinions on the troop dispatch.

Yoon's remarks came after several local media reported the South Korean government may draw a conclusion to accept the US request at last. The Blue House criticized those media's "irresponsible" reports.

On Wednesday, Richard Lawless, the US deputy assistant secretary of defense, said Washington wanted Seoul to send about 5,000 combat troops to help keep order in Iraq by this mid-October.

South Korea is currently embroiled in a heated debate over the troop dispatch. The issue is now a major topic of prime time news and discussion programs, as activists and university students are preparing to jointly hold large-scale anti-war, anti-US rallies.

Two separate delegations of South Korean officials left for Iraq and the United States on Thursday to gather information related to the troop dispatch.

In May, South Korea dispatched some 675 army engineers and medics to assist the US-led rehabilitation of postwar Iraq. At the time, many criticized the United States for starting the war without UN authorization. 

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2003)