[Peace-discuss] Last major US ally sets date to pull out of Iraq

[Chris Tuck]

 as reported on AL Jazeera*

Rudd to withdraw troops from Iraq
*
Australia's prime minister-elect has said that his country's 550 combat
troops in Iraq will be withdrawn by the middle of next year.

"The combat force in Iraq, we would have home by around about the middle of
next year," Kevin Rudd told a Melbourne radio station on Friday.




 "We've not begun our discussions with the United States on that. We'll have
a meeting with the United States ambassador before too long to set up the
appropriate processes for discussing that."







  Rudd won Saturday's elections by a landslide, beating John Howard, the
prime minister who staunchly supported the US-led war in Iraq.

Rudd had promised to withdraw the battle group from Iraq if elected but said
he would leave behind some Australian soldiers, including those providing
security at Australia's embassy in Baghdad.

Australia has some 1,500 troops involved in Iraqi operations, but most are
outside the country.

The withdrawal plan covers only the 550 combat troops deployed in the south
of the war-torn country.

Iraq was a key point of difference between Rudd's centre-left Labor party
and Howard's conservative coalition during the election, but in his victory
speech Rudd moved to allay US concerns about the troop withdrawal,
describing the US as a great ally.

*Last of 'coalition'*


"It's a situation where Australia is determining how it is going to
reposition forces and how it is going to deploy its resources in a new and
different way, and we are looking forward to working with Mr Rudd in
achieving that," McCallum said this week.

"There are going to be Australian troops left in Iraq as security forces
that relate to the Australian embassy in Baghdad; there are naval forces and
air forces that are offshore that relate to security issues," he added.

Howard was US President George Bush's last major partner in the "coalition
of the willing" that once included former prime ministers Tony Blair of
Britain; Jose Maria Aznar of Spain; Silvio Berlusconi of Italy; and former
Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski.

Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, has announced that the number of British
troops in Iraq will be cut by more than half early next year.
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