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TOKYO, Oct 3 (Reuters) Japan will send two army officers to Sudan, probably this month, to take part in a United Nations operation monitoring a peace agreement that ended Africa's longest-running civil war, the Foreign Ministry said today.
Japan is trying to take a more active role in international security, but will soon halt an air force mission flying supplies to US-led forces in Iraq and faces political hurdles to continuing naval refuelling in the Indian Ocean in support of Washington-led military operations in Afghanistan.
In May, Japan said it was mulling sending hundreds of troops to help with demining efforts in southern Sudan, but this idea has been shelved.
The two army officers will work on logistics and database maintenance at the UN mission's headquarters in Khartoum, a foreign ministry official said.
Sudan's 2005 peace agreement ended 20 years of civil war in the south of the country, and the UN peacekeeping operation includes about 10,000 military personnel.
Japan, whose pacifist constitution limits the activities of its troops abroad, also has some military personnel in Nepal and in the Golan Heights on the borders of Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.
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