The government and the three ruling parties agreed Saturday to submit a bill to the Diet this week that will make it possible to send Self-Defense Forces to Iraq to take part in post-war reconstruction work.

The new law will have a limited duration of four years and the SDF personnel will only be allowed to work in noncombatant areas, said Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the secretaries general of the ruling parties in a meeting at a Tokyo hotel that the government aims to approve the bill at a Cabinet meeting Friday and have the new law enacted during the current Diet session, Yamasaki said.