WARSAW (Agence France Presse) — Poland will end next year its mission in Iraq, where it currently deploys 900 soldiers, new Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said yesterday.
"I can confirm that in 2008 the Polish military contingent in Iraq will be withdrawn," the minister, who took up his post in the new liberal government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday, told public radio Jedynma.
He said the details of the withdrawal would be announced next Friday when Tusk outlines his government's policies in parliament.
Warsaw has been one of the closest US allies over Iraq. Polish troops took part in the 2003 invasion, sparking a bitter verbal battle with anti-war European Union members, notably France.
U.S.-Polish ties strengthened after the election in 2005 of the previous Law and Justice party administration. Last December, President Lech Kaczynski extended the deployment of its 900-strong force until the end of this year, and the conservative government had said it was planning to send a new group of soldiers in 2008.
Tusk's Civic Platform, which won last month's snap general elections, has pledged a swift pull-out.
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