The troops will be stationed in Kurdish-controlled Irbil and will be involved in reconstruction work, the government said.

The announcement follows months of delays following opposition to the deployment in South Korea.

Once all the troops are in place, South Korea will have the third largest force in Iraq after the US and Britain.

South Korea's Defence Ministry said the first contingent of 900 troops would leave at the beginning of August, to be followed a month later by the main body.

They are set to be joined by 600 Korean medics and engineers already at work in southern Iraq.

The BBC's Charles Scanlon in Seoul says South Korea initially planned to send the force to Kirkuk in April, but demanded a safer location after attacks increased against US troops in the area.

They have settled on Irbil in the relatively peaceful Kurdish region.

The Koreans intend to focus on reconstruction and development work rather than security duties.

The US had initially requested a combat force. Liberal and left-wing politicians in South Korea opposed sending the troops but President Roh Moo-hyun stressed the importance of maintaining a strong alliance with the United States.

American plans to withdraw a third of their 37,000 troops from Korea by next year have served as a wake-up call.

There are strains in the relationship over how to deal with a nuclear-armed North Korea.

The South Korean government hopes to repair some of the damage by this gesture of solidarity with Washington on Iraq, our correspondent says.