SOFIA, July 29 (AFP) - Bulgaria on Thursday said it would spend 95,000 euros (almost 115,000 dollars) training Iraqi policemen as part of efforts to help restore stability in the war-torn country.
The police academy in Sofia "will instruct Iraqi cadres in the security domain" in a project overseen by the interior ministry, the government said in a statement without specifying the number of Iraqis it will train.
"As soon as the Iraqi security forces are able to organise themselves, the Bulgarian contingent in the country can complete its mission," it added.
Bulgaria has 470 soldiers stationed in Kerbala in southern Iraq as part of an international force under Polish command.
The government is facing pressure from the political opposition and the public to withdraw them following a deadly suicide bombing in December and the kidnapping of two Bulgarian civilians this month.
It has however vowed to keep the men in Iraq "for as long as the Iraqis wish" or until the end of 2005, the date set in the latest United Nations resolution on Iraq for democratic self-rule and a departure of foreign troops.
Sofia in July gave humanitarian aid worth 25,565 euros to Iraq, mainly medicine and other medical supplies.
Jordan is currently training Iraqi policemen, and Egypt has offered to do the same.