KUWAIT -- Kuwaiti and Iraqi boxers put aside years of tension between their countries on Tuesday to support the Iraqi team's effort to qualify for next year's Olympic games in Athens.

The Iraqi squad started training in Kuwait in the first visit to the Gulf Arab state by an Iraqi sports team since Baghdad's 1990 invasion of its oil-rich small neighbor.

"Iraq is back...I believe in them and this country believes in them,'' Iraq's coach, American Maurice "Termite" Watkins, told reporters.

The 11-member team will train in Kuwait for three days on their way to a qualifying tournament in the Philippines in mid-January.

"This is our way of expressing support for the new Iraq," said Sheikh Fahd Jaber al-Sabah, who heads Kuwait's boxing federation.

Team member Osama Jabbar feels confident about qualifying.

"I'm 19 and I've been boxing for seven years, but this time it's different. We're going to make it, God willing," he said.

Iraq will attend the Athens games despite the suspension of its tarnished Olympic Committee, led by Saddam Hussein's son Uday until the former dictator's fall in April. It hopes to compete in soccer, swimming, athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, judo and tae kwon do. Even if its athletes fail to qualify, the International Olympic Committee has the discretion to invite them to take part in events.

Before Saddam's overthrow, Kuwait had shunned sport contacts with its former occupier and often boycotted Arab sporting events in which Iraq took part.