MEXICO CITY, Aug. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Salvadorian President Elias Antonio Saca on Wednesday bid farewell to the country's third contingent which will leave for Iraq on Aug. 17, reports from the capital San Salvador said.

    Saca said at the national stadium Jorge Magico Gonzalez that the 380-member contingent will shoulder a noble mission of helping Iraq's reconstruction.

    "We are active member of the United Nations and we have to be responsible for our actions," the president noted.

    He believed that Salvador's presence and that of other 29 countries in the current coalition will surely contribute to stability in Iraq.

    The third contingent consists of marines, engineers, doctors and bomb experts. It will be deployed in Iraq for six months to replace the one stationed in the country in February.

    Its work will focus on the areas of health and education in the Iraqi city of Diwaniya where security conditions is better compared with Najaf, the present deployment place of Salvadorian servicemen 80 km away.

    But "nobody can foresee a contingency, and any of these missions imply some risk," Saca said.

    El Salvador sent its first contingent of 360 soldiers to Iraq in August 2003. It was replaced by the second contingent of some 380 soldiers.

    It is the only Latin American country which still has troops inIraq. Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have withdrawn their troops. Enditem