Minister says troops to withdraw from Iraq at the end of next year

He said that: "Two and a half years of a stabilizing mission in Iraq is enough. The deadline should be the ending date of the 1546 UN resolution." According to Szmajdziński, the decision is a compromise between a political calendar and the possibilities of Polish army and it will not be influenced by the current situation in Iraq. American Secretary General Colin Powel announced that the American army would stay there even after December 2005 as specialists predict that the whole stabilizing process might take from five to eight years. The Polish contingent will be reduced in January 2005 from the recent 2,500 to 1-1,500 soldiers, but even after their complete withdrawal the military equipment they used will remain there as a gift for the emerging Iraqi army. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1) D.W.