SEOUL, Dec 30, SPA -- South Korea's National Assemblyapproved on Friday a government plan to bring home nearlyone-third of the country's troops stationed in Iraq whileextending the overall deployment for another year. The assembly approved the plan in a 110-31 vote with 17abstentions. The plan calls for the withdrawal of about 1,000 of SouthKorea's 3,200 military personnel working in a Kurdish areaof northern Iraq to help rebuild the Middle Easterncountry. Seoul's troop contribution makes it the second-largestU.S. coalition partner after Britain. The currentdeployment would have expired at the end of this yearwithout the vote to extend it. The reduction will begin in the first half of next year,said Ahn Young-keun, a ruling Uri Party lawmaker, according to a report of the Associated Press.--SPA 11 34 Local Time 08 34 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/315632