"We will carry out our troop decision as planned despite the attack," Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan told a news briefing after a meeting of the National Security Council, the nation's top security committee.

Other related officials also confirmed that the shooting deaths of two South Korean citizens, and the wounding of two others, would not hamper Seoul's troop dispatch decision.

"It is inappropriate to link this incident to the dispatch of additional troops," National Security Adviser Ra Jong-yil told reporters before attending a meeting of senior presidential officials.

Foreign policy adviser to the president, Ban Ki-moon, also said, "This doesn't yet look like a situation that could affect the troop decision.

What's important now is to find accurate information on the incident and prepare measures for the safety of our people there."

"It is too early to comment. We must take time to analyze things," Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck told a hastily arranged briefing on the incident, which happened near deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

President Roh Moo-hyun strongly condemned the attack against South Korean civilians as inhumane terrorism against civilians.

"This incident is not terror against the military or a public organisation but terror against civilians," Roh told his aides. "This kind of inhumane activity is intolerable."

Roh said a further alert would be issued to overseas diplomatic missions advising them to guard against possible attacks.

He also ordered his national security advisor, the head of the National Security Council, to convene an emergency session to map out a strategy to protect South Korean nationals in Iraq.

During the NSC meeting, the participants discussed whether Sunday's attack was coincidental or deliberately perpetrated against South Koreans, due to the country's planned troop dispatch.

The government also convened a counter-terrorism committee presided over by Prime Minister Goh Kun on Tuesday to discuss ways of protecting South Korea's missions abroad and its nationals.