Japan will help Iraq buy about 600 police cars as part of its reconstruction efforts, government officials said Wednesday.

The vehicles, aimed at enhancing security in Iraq, will mainly be deployed in the southern city of Samawah, where Japanese ground troops will be dispatched, the officials said. The government will disburse about $28 million, or 3 billion yen, to help with the purchase, they said.

The plan will formally be approved at a Cabinet meeting Friday, they said.

Japan hopes to provide aid for the construction and reconstruction of schools and houses through international organizations, but it has decided not to move ahead with such assistance for now due to the worsening security situation, the officials said.

Japan has so far disbursed about $90 million in grants for reconstructing hospitals.

Refugee repatriations

A senior official of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Wednesday the agency hopes to resume repatriating refugees to northern Iraq from Turkey, according to a Foreign Ministry official.

Kamel Morjane, assistant high commissioner at the UNHCR, was quoted as telling senior ministry officials in a meeting in Tokyo that the agency is considering resuming operations in northern Iraq to help Kurds return home from Turkey, where they sought asylum during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The ministry official said the UNHCR appears to believe the security situation in the area is relatively stable compared with other areas of Iraq.

Morjane told the Japanese officials that a United Nations go-ahead is necessary for the UNHCR to return to northern Iraq, the official said.

U.N. agencies evacuated Iraq after a terrorist attack on U.N. offices in Baghdad last year killed at least 23 people, many of whom were providing humanitarian assistance or helping in the reconstruction effort.