Australia's new leader said yesterday that he would pull his country's combat troops out of Iraq by mid-next year -- setting a timetable for the withdrawal he has promised.
The move is likely to disappoint the US government, which counted Australia as one of its few staunch allies in the unpopular war in Iraq until Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd was swept to victory in elections last Saturday.
The prime minister-elect said yesterday he would move quickly to keep his election promise of bringing Australia's 550 frontline troops home from Iraq.
"The combat force in Iraq we would have home by around about the middle of next year," Rudd told a radio station in the southern city of Melbourne.
The new government plans to leave several hundred other Australian forces in and around Iraq in non-fighting roles such as guarding diplomats. Australia also has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, a deployment Rudd supports and has no plans to reduce.
US President George W. Bush was the first foreign leader to phone Rudd to congratulate him on his election victory, and the Australian leader said he would visit Washington early next year, with Iraq certain to be at the top of the agenda.
Rudd said yesterday that his government had not begun discussions with US officials about the withdrawal plan, and that a meeting with US Ambassador Robert McCallum would be arranged soon.
Earlier this week, McCallum said US officials looked forward to talking the plan over, and noted that it did not mean all Australian troops would be leaving Iraq.
"It's a situation ... where Australia is determining how it's going to reposition its forces, how it's going to deploy its resources in a new and different way, and we are looking forward to working with Mr Rudd in achieving it," McCallum told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
Outgoing conservative Prime Minister John Howard sent 2,000 troops to support the US and British forces that invaded Iraq in 2003, and about 1,600 remain in and around the country.
Howard, who had close personal ties with Bush and was a staunch ally in the war on terror, had refused to set any timetable for pulling out the troops.
He said terrorists worldwide would be emboldened if they left, or if the US-led forces were defeated in Iraq.
Rudd says the Iraq deployment has made Australia more of a target for terrorism.
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