Gen Nakatani, director general of the Defense Agency, told the heads of Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces on Tuesday to send some 700 service members to East Timor in March to assist with United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Nakatani issued the instruction after the Cabinet decided in the morning to dispatch GSDF personnel, mainly from the Northern Army in Hokkaido, to the fledgling country before it gains full independence, defense officials said.

Nakatani said at a news conference that Japan's contribution to East Timor was of "large significance."

The mission is expected to exceed the size of the 1992 U.N. peacekeeping mission to Cambodia -- the largest to involve the SDF -- which included 600 GSDF members and 520 from the MSDF and ASDF.

In East Timor, GSDF personnel will construct and repair roads and bridges.

The MSDF and ASDF will form units to transport GSDF personnel and supplies and equipment.

Japan is expected to send a fact-finding mission made up of personnel from the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Agency and the GSDF to East Timor by the end of this month.

Before troops are dispatched, the Diet is likely to debate whether regulations on weapons use by SDF personnel should be eased.

The 1992 peacekeeping operations law allows soldiers on peacekeeping missions to shoot only for immediate self-protection. SDF officials have criticized the law because it bars them from protecting civilians and colleagues from other countries they may be working with.

The law also limits the number of personnel, including civilians, that can be sent overseas to participate in such missions to 2,000.

The GSDF troops are expected to take over operations currently being conducted by Pakistani and Bangladeshi forces in areas bordering Indonesia's West Timor. They will be on station for about two years, the sources said.

The Koizumi government decided to expedite preparations for dispatching the SDF after Pakistan said it would not extend its involvement in East Timor because of the launch of U.S.-led air strikes against Taliban targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan's neighbor.

East Timor held its first legislative elections for a constituent assembly on Aug. 30, two years after its historic referendum on independence from Indonesia. It is expected to gain full independence next May.

Defense funds get OK

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's three defense-related panels endorsed Tuesday about 42 billion yen in budgetary allocations for the Defense Agency in the fiscal 2001 supplementary budget, panel members said.

The money is earmarked chiefly for domestic counterterrorism measures and is the largest supplementary budget for the agency.

Of the total, 12 billion yen is earmarked for strengthening security at U.S. bases and Self-Defense Forces facilities in Japan, including purchasing more night-vision equipment and metal detectors, the members said.

A further 2 billion yen will be used to counter biological and chemical terrorism. The money is likely to be used to buy anthrax antibiotics and germ- and chemical-proof suits.