LONDON - Britain agreed today to meet a U.S. request for British troops to be moved into volatile central Iraq, a proposal that has met strong opposition within the governing Labour Party.

The redeployment of troops from the relatively peaceful south aims at freeing up American forces to intensify attacks on insurgents as the coalition tries to stabilize Iraq ahead of elections in January.

An armored battlegroup of 850 soldiers from the First Battalion Black Watch - complete with medics, signalers and engineers - will be redeployed for a "limited and specific period of time, lasting weeks rather than months" to relieve U.S. troops, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said.

He did not say when the redeployment would begin and refused to give further details of the "location, duration or specifics of the mission" for security reasons. He said only that they would "deploy to an area within MNF (West)" - the western sector of the multinational force.

"After careful evaluation, the chiefs of staff have advised me that U.K. forces are able to undertake the proposed operation, that there is a compelling military operational justification for doing so, and that it entails a militarily acceptable level of risk for U.K. forces," Hoon told the House of Commons.

In Baghdad,

gunmen today opened fire on a bus carrying female employees of Iraqi Airways to the Baghdad airport, killing one and wounding 14, an airline official said. All the victims were Iraqi women.

The attack on the airline workers occurred on the main road linking the airport with central Baghdad, the official said on condition of anonymity. The U.S. State Department has described travel between central Baghdad and the airport as "particularly dangerous."

Meanwhile, the husband of the kidnapped director of CARE International made a plea in Baghdad for her release, saying she has spent her life helping Iraqis.

Margaret Hassan, the head of operations in Iraq for the charity, was abducted on her way to work early Tuesday by gunmen who blocked her route and dragged the driver and a companion from the car, said her husband Tahseen Ali Hassan.

During a press conference today, Hassan, an Iraqi national, addressed the kidnappers, saying: "Release my wife. She's Iraqi; she's working for a humanitarian organization and I ask you to release her."

Hassan, the kidnapped CARE official, has worked in Iraq for three decades and is among the most widely known humanitarian officials in the Middle East.

She holds British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship, and is the most high-profile figure to fall victim to a wave of kidnappings sweeping Iraq in recent months. CARE International has suspended its operations in Iraq.

Ali Hassan said no group has claimed responsibility for her abduction so far and he did not know if she was taken by a religious or political group.

Arab television station Al-Jazeera has broadcast a brief video showing Hassan, wearing a white blouse and appearing tense, sitting in a room with bare white walls. The video did not identify what group was holding her and contained no demand for her release.

Al Hassan said he expects his wife, who is in her early 60s, is "nervous of course" but called her "a strong lady."

He said he was surprised when he heard the news about Hassan's kidnapping.

"I was really shocked, I couldn't believe it myself. She's not involved in politics or religion," he said. "I'm shattered, I haven't slept."

U.S. aircraft, meanwhile, mounted four strikes Wednesday in Fallujah on what the U.S. military said were safehouses used by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up operations seeking to curb insurgent violence so that Iraqi voters throughout the country can choose a new transitional government in January.

But Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari complained that the United Nations has not sent enough election experts to help prepare for the balloting.

"It is unfortunate that the contribution and participation of U.N. employees in this process is not up to expectations," Zebari told reporters.

He said the number of U.N. workers expected to help in the election was far smaller than the 300 workers the United Nations sent for the 1999 independence referendum in East Timor.

Elsewhere, hospital officials said today that a pair of car bombings in Samarra a day earlier were suicide attacks that killed 10 Iraqi civilians and injured 14 others. Earlier reports put the death toll at one.