TOKYO - A Japanese fact-finding mission left for Iraq on Sunday to prepare the way for Japan's first overseas deployment of troops since it lost World War Two, Reuters reported.

Japan plans to send soldiers to Iraq on a humanitarian mission but violence after the U.S. war that ousted Saddam Hussein has raised questions about whether they should go.

A controversial Japanese law change in July opened the way for Tokyo to send troops to non-combat zones in Iraq.

The delegation of defence and foreign ministry officials would visit Britain, Kuwait and Qatar before arriving in Iraq on around September 22, Kyodo news agency reported.

The Japanese officials plan to check the security and political situation in Iraq before the deployment of Japanese Self-Defence Forces (SDF) troops.

While Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is keen to send the troops to assist the United States in rebuilding Iraq, his critics, including rivals in the ruling party, say a deployment is premature given the situation in Iraq.

Koizumi has said the law change made the deployment possible but this did not mean it was certain. More than 70 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since May 1, when U.S. President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in the war.

Government officials have said several more fact-finding missions are expected to go to Iraq before the troops are sent.

Bush, who is pushing a number of U.S. allies to help reconstruct Iraq, is due to visit Tokyo next month.

No details have been released of how many Japanese soldiers might be sent to Iraq, their mission or when they might go.