BERLIN, Sept 28 (AFP) - Germany will provide around 20 armoured vehicles to the Iraqi army as part of its NATO commitments to help reconstruction in the conflict-torn country, a government spokesman said Tuesday.
The Fuchs vehicles, which are mainly for troop transport but can be outfitted for other purposes, will be provided without weaponry, spokesman Bela Anda said in a statement.
The online version of the news magazine Der Spiegel said earlier that a first batch of the vehicles would be sent to the United Arab Emirates so that Iraqi troops can train there on their use and maintenance.
The six-wheeled vehicles are ideal for use in desert conditions.
Spiegel said the German security council, made up of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and senior ministers, decided on the move in the last week and that a parliamentary foreign affairs committee would discuss it on Wednesday.
Germany is also sending around 100 trucks to the region so that Iraqi troops could train with them, Anda reiterated.
The government in Berlin opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq and has consistently refused to send troops there despite increasing pressure from Washington, a key ally, to do so.
"No German soldier will set foot on Iraqi soil," Der Spiegel quoted Defence Minister Peter Struck as saying again.
Nevertheless German military personnel have been helping to train police and Iraqi soldiers outside the country, mainly in the UAE.
Germany`s Fuchs armoured vehicles, known as Foxes elsewhere, became the focus of international attention before the war because a team of them with nuclear, biological and chemical detecting equipment was based in Kuwait.
The United States asked Berlin to have them on standby in case of a chemical weapons attack when it tried to oust former president Saddam Hussein.
Germany feared that providing help could drag it into the war but left the vehicles in the Gulf state nevertheless.
The US military currently has a number of its own Fox vehicles in Iraq.