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Poland's government decided Tuesday to keep its troops in Iraq until the end of next year, longer than earlier planned, reaffirming its backing for the United States despite growing opposition at home.

The previous leftist government, which stood up to European Union heavyweights Germany and France by firmly backing the US-led war in Iraq, planned to pull troops out in early 2006 after gradually reducing its forces in the course of this year.

"The government decided to ask the president to extend the deployment of Polish military forces as part of the international forces in Iraq from January 1, 2006 until December 31, 2006," Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz told a news conference.

"This is a very difficult decision, but we take into consideration the fact that the mandate of UN stabilisation forces has been extended to the whole of 2006 and, secondly, strong requests of Iraqi authorities that we stay there," he said.

Deputy Defence Minister Stanislaw Koziej told the news conference Poland's military force in Iraq would be reduced to 900 in March 2006. He said the focus of Poland's presence would also shift towards the training of Iraqi forces.

Poland's government had been under new pressure to quickly withdraw troops from Iraq, with mainstream opposition parties that had backed the deployment turning against an extension beyond early 2006.

"The government is making a mistake," Bronislaw Komorowski, a leader of the center-right Civic Platform, told public radio, when asked about the probable decision to keep troops in Iraq.

"Several years ago when Poland sent troops to Iraq we were engaged on the right side. Today, there is no need to continue our mission when other allies are leaving."

US military allies such as Bulgaria, Hungary and Ukraine, whose troops were part of the Polish-led multinational division in Iraq, have already decided to pull out.

Grzegorz Napieralski, deputy leader of the Democratic Left Alliance which lost power in September's parliamentary election, said Poland's mission in Iraq must end.

"Troops should be pulled out, our task under the United Nations mandate has been accomplished," he said.

Surveys have consistently showed a majority of Poles opposed the military mission, but unlike in some western European countries, the issue played a marginal role in recent elections.

Bulgaria ends troop pullout

Bulgaria has withdrawn its entire 334-strong light infantry battalion from Iraq, in line with plans to end its military presence there by the end of the year, the defence ministry said Tuesday.

The Bulgarian parliament approved the move in May in response to strong public opposition to the war.

"As of last night, the last group of 130 Bulgarian soldiers is in a safe place in Kuwait. They will come home on December 30," Defence Ministry spokesman Vladislav Prelezov said.

A staunch supporter of the US-led military operations, Bulgaria sent troops to Iraq in 2003. But it has since lost 13 soldiers and six civilians there and the majority of its 7.8 million people oppose keeping soldiers there any longer.

The ruling Socialists had promised to withdraw the troops immediately after winning June elections.

But they later changed plans and decided to stick to the year-end target after Iraq's interim government asked for the Balkan country's support for December 15 parliamentary polls.

(China Daily December 28, 2005)