More than 300 Australian troops will head to Iraq on Wednesday for a training mission which is expected to last for two years, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on Tuesday.

Speaking in Canberra, Mr Abbott said the decision to send troops to train Iraqi’s army came at the repeated request of the country’s leader, Haider al-Abadi.

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“We have a long history of shouldering our responsibilities to the wider world,” Mr Abbott said.

“The important thing is to make an effective and meaningful contribution to the security of the wider world. This is not just about Iraq. This is about national security too.”

The troops will be stationed outside of Baghdad and will be deployed with 120 New Zealand military personnel in a build partner capacity mission to help train Iraqi’s army.

The operation will be fully operational by may and will be formally reviewed in 12 months.

Several other countries have troops currently deployed in Iraq on training missions, including Germany, America and Spain.

Mr Abbott said the work of coalition forces against the Islamic State terrorist group had been effective, but admitted the group still controlled “large swathes of Iraqi territory”.

“Iraq is a dangerous place and I can’t tell you that this is risk free,” he said.

“We will try to ensure the legitimate government of Iraq has a trained and disciplined and capable force that understands the rules of armed conflict at its disposal to retake control.”