PANAGODA (Sri Lanka): Sri Lanka's military on Wednesday said it was seeking more UN peacekeeping jobs as the island's first batch of 750 troops prepared to leave for Haiti.

Army chief Lieutenant General Shantha Kottegoda said a peace deal with Tamil Tiger guerrillas could free more troops from the security forces to take up the lucrative peacekeeping slots.

Addressing the 750 infantrymen headed for Haiti next week, Kottegoda said he expected to send more soldiers abroad on similar missions. "Once we have permanent peace, we will be in a position to send more of our soldiers abroad on these missions," Kottegoda said at the military's main base 25 kilometres east of Colombo.

He said the prospect of being chosen for the plum posts with a basic salary of 1,028 dollars a month plus other allowances was encouraging new recruits and boosting the morale of enlisted men.

The average monthly salary of a Sri Lankan soldier is about 100 dollars. The French embassy here conducted classes in conversational French for the 750 troopers as part of their training ahead of the Haiti deployment.

Colonel Amal Karunasekara said he had already been to Haiti to arrange for the induction of the Sri Lankan contingent. A UN mission with a maximum of 6,700 soldiers and 1,622 civilian police took over in Haiti from June to help restore stability after the chaotic ouster of president Jean Bertrand Aristide in February.

The Sri Lankan military, which is estimated to at least 120,000-strong, has been struggling to attract recruits and faced a high rate of desertions at the height of fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels.

However, troops and Tigers have been observing a truce since February 2002. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the Tamil separatist conflict in the past three decades. 2-AFP