LONDON, Jan. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday that the United States and Britain will send a team to Iraq to review the security situation there before the country's general election on Jan. 30.

    "What (US) President (George W.) Bush and myself have agreed is that we are sending a team there just to review the situation because the key thing there is to build the capability of the Iraqi security forces themselves," the BBC quoted Blair as saying.

    Blair also admitted that the security situation around Baghdad was not optimistic and vowed to deal with insurgents there.

    "In the key area around Baghdad there is no doubt about it at all, we have got to deal these people a blow," Blair said.

    Blair's comments came after the report of the Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper that the government will announce within days that hundreds of extra troops would be sent to Iraq to bolster security for the Jan. 30 elections there.

    As violence before the national poll escalates in Iraq, up to 650 British soldiers based in Cyprus would be deployed to the southern part of Iraq, such as Baghdad and the Sunni triangle, the paper said. Enditem