Poland will start to withdraw troops from January 2005: PM
Fri Oct 15, 4:57 AM ET Mideast - AFP
WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's Prime Minister Marek Belka confirmed that the 2,500 Polish troops in Iraq (news - web sites) would be progressively withdrawn starting from January next year and would not stay "an hour longer than needed."
However, speaking before parliament ahead of a confidence vote in his minority left-wing government, he declined to give a firm date for the final withdrawal of the Polish forces.
"Poland will reduce its contingent from the start of 2005 and will discuss subsequent reductions. We should not, however, destabilise the situation in Iraq through our decisions and complicate the transfer of responsibilities to the Iraqi authorities," he said.
"I assure you that we will not stay an hour longer in Iraq than is needed," the prime minister added.
Poland has been one of the staunchest allies of the US in Iraq, sending 2,500 troops to serve in the US-led coalition and taking command of a multinational zone.
But faced with strong domestic opposition to the deployment ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections expected next year, the leftist government said earlier this month it aimed to pull its forces out of Iraq by the end of 2005.