Italy to withdraw 1000 Iraq troops in June

20.01.06

ROME - Italy will withdraw 1000 of its 2600 troops in Iraq by June and aims to finish its mission there by the end of this year, Defence Minister Antonio Martino said on Thursday.

Martino told a parliamentary committee Italy will gradually end its military presence and phase into a new type of presence that he said would be "substantially civilian in nature."

Italy, which has the fourth largest foreign contingent in Iraq, faces a general election next April where the unpopular Iraq war is likely to become an issue. Most Italians and all opposition parties were opposed to the troop deployment.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has already said that all the troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2006 in co-ordination with the Iraqi government.

Washington played down the pullout as in line with both Italy’s earlier decision and the US-led force’s aim of withdrawing as Iraqis take on more security tasks.

The United States, which currently has about 140,000 soldiers in Iraq, has reduced its own presence there by about 20,000 troops since the Iraqi parliamentary elections on December 15.

The US military has announced plans to cut its contingent by several thousand more troops in the coming weeks. Other countries are also scaling back their presence.

"They had previously indicated that they were going to take these steps to withdraw, to draw down their security presence in Iraq based on the security conditions," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.

"All coalition partners, including the United States, are interested in returning their troops home as soon as possible … consistent with the abilities of the Iraqis to take over the duties that those troops were performing," he said.

- REUTERS