Their task includes training Georgian special forces to eradicate a group of Muslim extremists with alleged links to the al-Qaeda network thought to be hiding in the remote Pankisi Gorge.

The United States will also give the Georgian military guns, ammunition, communications gear, as well as medical fuel and construction equipment, a Pentagon spokesman said.

"This programme implements President [George] Bush's decision to respond to the government of Georgia's request for assistance to enhance its counter-terrorism capabilities and address the situation in the Pankisi Gorge," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Training is expected to begin in about a month.

Longer-term aim?

The US Government had said its sole task in the region would be to spend six months instructing troops.

But some in Georgia suspect they will stay much longer, in order to protect a multi-billion-dollar pipeline set to be built between the Caspian Sea and a Turkish port on the Mediterranean, via Georgia.

Others say the US Government plans to establish a permanent military base in the south Caucasus, given its proximity to Iran and Iraq.

Both countries were described by US President George W Bush, as part of an "axis of evil" and the new front in the war against terror.