The "rest and recreation" opportunity is being offered for the first time since the Vietnam war.

It applies to soldiers who received their orders at least a year ago and aims to ease the tedium, frustration and hardship of a seemingly open-ended deployment in an alien and often hostile environment.

"A military lives for 'mission accomplished,'" explained Nasser, a Marine reservist who recently returned from Iraq and did not want his last name in the press. "When you're asked to stay longer, it becomes frustrating, especially if there's no specific timeframe."

While American soldiers continue to be targets of almost daily attacks in Iraq, their deployment orders have gradually lengthened.

And at the beginning of September, the Pentagon decided to prolong their tours to up to a year, for both reservists and active duty personnel.

But families that have been showing increasing impatience over these last weeks warn that one year can be easily stretched to 18 months.

Reservists had been training for months before their departure and must go through a demobilization period before they are able to return home.

"When it was determined that US forces were going to be spending 12-month tours in Iraq, the first thing we thought about was providing for the welfare of these forces, because providing for their welfare is improving readiness," said Marine Corps Major Pete Mitchell, a spokesman for the Central Command.

According to an opinion poll published Saturday by Newsweek magazine, 49 percent of the Americans believe Washington should reduce the number of its troops in Iraq and start bringing them home.

But 51 percent of them said the forces should be reduced only if they were replaced with foreign troops.

Reuters adds: US troops said they had found surface-to-air missiles and hundreds of other weapons including plastic explosives buried in an orchard near Saddam Hussein's hometown on Saturday.

A US military spokesman described the haul as one of the most significant weapons seizures of recent weeks and a sign of how Saddam loyalists were still equipped to pose a threat to US forces.

He said 23 SA-7 surface-to-air missiles were found as well as 1,000 pounds of plastic explosives, 500 hand grenades, dozens of mortar bombs and hundreds of detonators which could be used to set off car bombs or other explosions.