Some 850 British troops and support personnel will move to patrol areas closer to Baghdad following a US request, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said today.
"The government has decided that we should accept the US request for assistance," Mr Hoon told the House of Commons in London.
"A UK armoured battlegroup consisting of the 1st Battalion the Black Watch and supporting units will deploy ... to relieve a USunit for other tasks."
The minister said that, including support services such as medics and engineers, around 850 personnel would be involved. They would be deployed for "weeks rather than months".
"This deployment is a vital part of the process of creating the right conditions for the Iraqi elections to take place in January," Mr Hoon said.
He gave no precise details about when the Black Watch would move or to where, other than saying they would be heading north. But he said they would remain under the operational command of British military chiefs, not Americans.
Officials said the force would be deployed to the west of Baghdad.
US military chiefs asked last week for British troops to move north to patrol volatile areas near Baghdad in order to free up US forces to tackle insurgents in hotspots like Falluja before the elections.
Mr Hoon also denied a newspaper report that a further 1,300 British soldiers could be sent to Iraq in the run-up to the elections, which Prime Minister Tony Blair accuses insurgents of trying to wreck.