JAKARTA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian military (TNI) will host a joint exercise participated by international troops of the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces, TNI spokesperson Sagom Tamboen said here.

    Tamboen said that troops from 24 countries will join the exercise, dubbed as Garuda Shield 2009 and scheduled from June 16 to 29 in Indonesian Army's Infantry Training Center, West Java.

    "It will be held in two stages that comprised of command post and field exercises. Each of them will be joined by troops from 14countries and 10 countries respectively. In total 338 troops will take part in the joint military exercise," the Antara news agency quoted Thursday Tamboen as saying.

    He pointed out that the joint military exercise is aimed at promoting cooperation among armed forces of the UN Peacekeeping troops.

    Indonesia has been actively involved in UN peace keeping mission since 1957. As peacekeeping forces, Indonesian troops were deployed in UN's 15 peacekeeping missions, in Egypt, Vietnam, Lebanon, Congo and etc.