SEOUL, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush urged South Korea Tuesday to send personnel back to Afghanistan, saying the war-torn country needs 'non-combat' help.

He was speaking after a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

South Korea sent 200 medical and engineering troops to Afghanistan in February 2002. It withdrew them last December despite a US request for them to stay on.

Bush said he thanked Lee for Korea's past contributions but did not seek combat help.

'The only thing I talked about was non-combat help. I asked him to consider as much non-combat help as possible to help this young democracy.'

Taliban kidnappers who seized 23 South Korean church workers in Afghanistan last year had demanded the pullout of the Korean units.

Seoul said at the time that the withdrawal had already been scheduled.

The kidnappers murdered two of the hostages before freeing the remainder in a still undisclosed deal.

South Korea also has about 500 troops in Iraq on reconstruction work. Parliament must vote in December on whether to extend the deployment.