About 160 members of the Self-Defense Forces left for Haiti on Saturday evening to engage in U.N. peacekeeping operations and help with reconstruction activities in the impoverished Caribbean nation devastated by a Jan. 12 quake.

The 160 form the first batch of the 350-member SDF unit, which is composed mainly of engineers and those providing logistic support for the group. The troops are expected to remove rubble, repair roads and build shelters for quake victims.

"Local people who have been suffering from the earthquake are waiting for your arrival. Fully applying the experiences that you gained through the Great Hanshin Earthquake (in 1995) and Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake(in 2004) to help people there," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told members of the SDF unit who gathered at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon.