LONDON, Oct 21: Britain agreed on Thursday to a request from US commanders to redeploy 850 troops into a US-controlled section of Iraq, west of Baghdad, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said.

"The government has decided that we should accept the US request for assistance," Hoon told parliament, adding that the deployment would be "limited in scope, time and space".

Mr Hoon said an "armoured battle group" comprising 850 troops would be drawn from Scotland's Black Watch regiment, currently in southern Iraq, "to relieve a US unit for other tasks".

The decision was announced after Britain's "overall strategy" in Iraq was discussed at Prime Minister Tony Blair's weekly meeting with his cabinet, a Downing Street spokesman said.

He said the British troops would remain under operational British command. He also insisted that the move was not related to the US presidential elections on Nov 2, as many critics have suggested.-AFP