Liam Reid
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, is to travel to Liberia later this month to inspect Irish troops deployed there.
A spokesman for his department confirmed Mr Smith will be travelling to Monrovia, the Liberian capital, for a two-day trip on January 21st and 22nd.
Nearly 500 troops, including members of the army's elite Ranger wing, have been stationed there on UN peace-keeping duties since November.
While it is standard practice for the Minister for Defence to visit army personnel stationed abroad, Liberia is one of the most unstable regions to have been visited by a serving Government member.
The country remains in a state of crisis, following 14 years of internal conflict. Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless and thousands more killed in the last four years.
UN peacekeepers were called in last August after the Liberian president, Charles Taylor, left for exile.
The country is also unstable outside the capital, with armed rival militias still controlling various areas. This was highlighted during an operation earlier this week when Army Rangers freed 35 Liberian civilians who were beaten and raped by armed renegade government forces holding them in a container near Liberia's border with Guinea.