IRAQ/POLAND: Poland's leaders yesterday floated the idea of withdrawing troops from Iraq by the end of next year, giving the first timetable for a planned pullout by the staunch Washington ally.
Poland's Defence Minister said most troops should leave Iraq by the end of 2005, the first mention of a specific date.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski also spoke of such a timeframe for withdrawal, but said no exact date had been set yet.
Poland has 2,500 soldiers in south-central Iraq and runs a multi-national division of 8,000 troops there. It has said it planned to "significantly" scale down its military presence in Iraq after general elections planned early next year. Seventeen Poles have died during the 13-month-old deployment and opinion polls show nearly three quarters of the public oppose the presence of Polish troops in Iraq, putting pressure on the Prime Minister, Mr Marek Belka, to present a pull-out plan.
The Defence Minister, Mr Jerzy Szmajdzinski, told the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper that the troop withdrawal should coincide with the end-2005 expiry of a UN Security Council resolution that endorsed Iraq's current interim government. A handful of Polish officers and observers could stay longer as part of any continued stabilisation mission, he added.
Mr Kwasniewski, visiting the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, said it might be possible to "maybe finish our mission at the end of 2005" but discussions on that continued. "We have to behave in a responsible fashion," he said.
Mr Belka said he had not authorised Mr Szmajdzinski to announce a timetable, which departs from Warsaw's long-standing position that troops would remain in Iraq "as long as it takes" to complete their mission. Before becoming prime minister in May, Mr Belka worked for nine months at the US-led temporary administration in Iraq.
He has argued that Poland's engagement there has paid dividends by helping the EU newcomer quickly gain a respected voice on European defence and foreign policy issues.
Two opposition parties are collecting signatures for a public petition to highlight discontent over the deployment.