Troops to come home

He said the deadline for the pullout might be moved from January to the middle of the year. Sikorski says the security situation in Iraq's south-central province had improved sufficiently to allow for the handover of full security responsibilities to the Iraqi forces.

Poland contributed 2,500 troops to the US-led occupation of Iraq. The previous leftist government had intended to pull the remaining 1,400 troops out at the end of January.

Sikorski said that the government would decide in December whether to pull all the troops out in January or to leave 900 soldiers for a further six months. "We will certainly withdraw our troops next year," he added. (Reuters)