A 12-member advance team is to fly to Qatar next week ahead of the Filipino team of soldiers, policemen, military engineers and doctors, nurses, social workers and diplomats.

"The entire mission will be in Iraq in the second half of May," Reyes said over ABS-CBN television here.

He said the mission would initially be liaising with the US-appointed office of the post-war administrator, retired general Jay Garner, and to an interim government in Baghdad later on.

Manila would foot the bill for the first month of the mission, but expects the US-led coalition that seized Iraq to help defray its expenses later on, Reyes said.

SPACE.WIRE