U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed orders to send some 3,500 American troops to Kuwait, a sign that the Bush administration will increase troop levels in Iraq temporarily in coming months.

The soldiers are from the 2nd Brigade, the 82nd Airborne Division, and would be deployed in Kuwait shortly after the new year, senior defense officials said Tuesday.

The unit, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, would be in Kuwait to replace a Marine unit which had been stationed in the country but moved into Iraq earlier this year, media reports said.

Gates, who was sworn in as defense secretary last week, met with President George W. Bush on Saturday to brief him on what he had seen or heard during his three-day visit to Iraq as the new defense chief.

He was expected to meet Bush again on Thursday at the president's ranch at Crawford, Texas, to discuss possible changes to the administration's policy on Iraq, which could include a short-term increase of troops to help quell the ongoing violence in Iraq, particularly in the capital city Baghdad.

Source: Xinhua