EXCERPTS

By Lee Chi-dong

Erbil, Iraq - A senior Iraqi regional government official on Saturday expressed hope that thousands of South Korean troops will continue to stay here.

The Zaytun Division may complete its mission here as early as the end of this year and return home. Zaytun means olive in Arabic.

The South Korean government is supposed to draw up a timetable for the pullout of the troops before July. Anti-war civic groups are calling for the immediate withdrawal of the division, which they claim is participating in the U.S. President George W. Bush administration's "groundless" campaign in the Middle East nation.

Camped on the outskirts of Erbil City, 350 kilometers north of Baghdad, the contingent is South Korea's largest military presence on foreign soil since the end of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

South Korea sent 3,600 troops here in September 2004 to help with peacekeeping and reconstruction tasks at the request of the U.S. government. There are now about 1,600 South Korean soldiers here, with the number to be reduced to 1,200 after April.

Talk of Zaytun's possible departure displeases residents in this Kurdish-controlled city, as it has become a crucial part of their life.

"We want the Zaytun unit to continue to stay here," Erbil Governor Nawzad Hadi Mawlood told a group of South Korean reporters visiting the region.

He said that his provincial government and the Kurdistan regional authorities would officially ask the South Korean government to extend the stationing of the troops.

"We believe it is necessary for Zaytun to stay here because we are still in need," he said, citing the division's contributions to the region.

South Korean troops have sown the seed of hope in local residents, who went through decades of repression by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Zaytun is cited as a role model for other coalition forces when it comes to civil-military operations to provide education and medical services for the locals.

Local residents form a long line to use the Zaytun Hospital, operated by dozens of South Korean military medics, and the unit's vocational training program - from baking to automobile maintenance - is a guarantee for landing jobs.

Zaytun plans to construct a two-story library inside Irbil Central Park this year, with a budget of US$4 million.

On the back of Zaytun's accomplishments, this region is rapidly prospering. Irbil City is now lively, with new buildings springing up.

Amid a flow of investment, the number of foreign companies doing business in the region has jumped to 430 from about 100 in 2004. Most of the companies are based in Turkey, but a growing number of multilateral companies from various countries are interested in doing business in Erbil, which some call the "economic capital of Iraq."

The governor expects South Korean companies to join in the rush.

"Due to the experience of the Zaytun Division for the relationship between the locals and soldiers, which is very nice and successful, we believe, depending on that, Korean companies will be also successful in Kurdistan," he said.

He added that he plans to visit South Korea in early May to discuss closer ties with the country's local authorities.