Tokyo, Dec 5, SPA -- Japan's ruling bloc sent two senior lawmakersto Iraq Sunday on a fact-finding mission that comes daysbefore Tokyo is expected to extend the Japanese military'shumanitarian work there. The departure of Tsutomu Takebe, Liberal Democratic Partysecretary-general, and Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, of the party'sjunior coalition partner, New Komeito Party, follows thatof Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono, who arrived inKuwait on Sunday and was to head to the Japanese militarybase at the southern Iraqi city of Samawah. Takebe and Fuyushiba didn't talk to reporters at Tokyo'sNarita international airport before they boarded a BritishAirways flight to Kuwait. The high-profile visits to Samawah mark the government'slast-ditch effort to show that it wouldn't endanger thelives of 550 Japanese troops there by extending theirdispatch beyond a Dec. 14 deadline. Prime MinisterJunichiro Koizumi's Cabinet is expected to reach a finaldecision later this week. The non-combat mission, launched early this year, isJapan's first military deployment to a combat zone sincethe end of World War II. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said duringan Asahi TV talk show that Japanese troops were likely tostay as long as another year, though he hinted that theymay come home earlier if the Iraqi government can restorepeace and quell an insurgency.--SPA1256 Local Time 0956 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/222403