PM Tony Abbott says Australia will be sending 300 troops to Iraq as part of a 'capacity training mission'.

PM announces more troops to go to Iraq

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed more Australian soldiers will be sent to Iraq alongside 143 New Zealanders for a training mission to defeat the “death cult” ISIS.

By May, about 300 regular troops will be deployed to Taji, 30km north of Baghdad for a two-year mission that will be reviewed after the first year.

In September, 170 special forces soldiers already in Iraq will return home.

A final decision on deployment is due within weeks, Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra.

“I want to stress that we haven’t taken this decision lightly,” Mr Abbott said.

“Utimately it is Iraq who must defeat the death cult, but we do not want to leave Iraq on its own.”

The government’s decision has the support of the Prime Minister of Iraq, he said.

Mr Abbott said preparations were under way to send the troops to contribute to a “building partner capacity training mission”. The move follows requests from both the governments of Iraq and the United States.

“We’re part of an international coalition of some 60 countries. It’s right that we make a prudent and proportionate contribution,” the PM said.

“This decision marks the next phase of Australia’s contribution to the international coalition to disrupt, degrade and ultimately defeat the Daesh, or ISIL, death cult,” Mr Abbott said.

“We have slowed Daesh’s advance but Iraq’s regular forces now require support to build their capacity to reclaim and to hold territory.”

Earlier, sources confirmed to News Corp Australia that Cabinet had signed off on sending additional troops to help in the fight against ISIS.

The issue was put before a meeting of the joint Liberal and Coalition party room at 9.30am today.

A total of 200 Special Forces are already in Iraq helping to train forces fighting ISIS.

The Daily Telegraph flagged today that the Prime Minister was poised to announce an additional 200-plus troops and that Cabinet was believed to have signed off on the proposal last night.

Senior intelligence officials also warned of “deep concerns” about the potential for Australian troops to be targeted by insider attacks.

Bill Shorten told a meeting of his caucus in Canberra today that he would be briefed on the plan before Question Time.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said it was absolutely the wrong thing to send more Australian troops to Iraq and that they would be a high risk.

“At every turn Australia has done the wrong thing,” Mr Wilkie said.

“There will be lots of risk and you’ve got to ask why.”

Mr Wilkie said the country would never return to its normal status quo as long as western troops were on the ground.