BAGHDAD (AFP) -- Around half of Georgia's 2,000-strong contingent in Iraq returned home on Sunday to redeploy in the conflict in its breakaway province of South Ossetia, military spokesmen said.

"Flights have in fact begun today and Georgian forces are redeploying," US military press spokesman Major John Hall told AFP.

"We are supporting the Georgian military units that are in Iraq in their redeployment to Georgia so that they can support requirements there during the current security situation."

Colonel Bondo Maisuradze, chief of Georgia's military operations in Baghdad, who has been in intense discussions with his American counterpart to ensure the withdrawal, said the redeployment would take some time.

"The total withdrawal will take a few days," Maisuradze told AFP.

A senior Georgian military official in Iraq said 1,000 troops had already arrived in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

Their depature came as Russia and Georgia were locked on Sunday in an escalating battle over South Ossetia that may have already claimed over 2,000 lives amid fears it is spreading to other parts of the Caucasus region.

In and around a pro-Moscow region in the west of the country, Abkhazia, the separatist government there has declared a state of war in areas of the province populated by Georgians.

As the third largest contributor to coalition forces in Iraq after the United States and Britain, the departure of the Georgian troops entails adjustments for the US military.

"We had already been shuffling forces around in Wassit province before the recent events, so despite the loss of the Georgian units, although unexpected, we can and are accommodating the changes," said Hall.

As a staunch ally of the United States the Georgians arrived in August 2003, about five months after the American-led invasion toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Huessein.

The majority of Georgian soldiers were deployed near Kut, 175 kilometres (109 miles) south of Baghdad in the province of Wasit, a hotbed of smuggling near the Iranian border.

They have provided training to Iraq's fledgling military, and manned border checkpoints.

The Georgian brigade has also faced powerful Shiite militias in the south and al-Qaeda forces in the Diyala region, northeast of Baghdad, regarded as the most dangerous area in Iraq.

Five of their soldiers have been killed, three of them this year in combat related incidents.

On Saturday, the Georgians handed their last posting, 25 kilometres (15 miles) northwest of Kut, to American troops, an AFP reporter witnessed.

"Professionally speaking, we have learned a lot -- knowing how to work and move together," said Major Emzar Svanidze, chief of the brigade in Kut.

"This will serve against the Russians. Even if the fight will be very different and even though I have no illusions of the power of the Russian army."