The South Korean Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it will send some 3,000 additional troops under an independent South Korean operational command to help in reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

Earlier this month, Seoul said it would limit the size of a fresh dispatch of troops to Iraq to 3,000, rebuffing American requests for a larger deployment.

The Defense Ministry, in a parliamentary report, also said it is reviewing two plans for the troop dispatch. The first option would see the deployed troops carrying out a humanitarian mission, similar to the one being carried out by a unit of South Korean army engineers and medics, who have maintained a presence in Iraq since April.

The second option would charge South Korean troops with providing security in a given region in Iraq. In both possible cases, the Korean forces would operate under independent command.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly's Defense Committee passed a motion Tuesday for extending the tour of duty for Korean military engineers and medics in Iraq and Afghanistan by one more year, following the deployment's original expiration date, which comes at the end of 2003.